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animemangasoul · 4 years

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You Have A Home With Me

Summery: Tim takes in a meta human kid and tries to keep him a secret from the rest of the batfamily until his team gets back. It doesn't go as planned. And with an entire criminal empire after the kid, it's all Tim can do to keep it all under wraps and away from the media's attention

Characters: Tim Drake, OC, Batfamily, Young Justice

Chapter: 2/5

By the time Tim parked his car, the rigged frame of the kid’s shoulders had softened and his breathing had even out, clearly having fallen into a deep sleep. Tim couldn’t help but smile slightly at the tiny snores coming from his left. After everything, the bombing, the screams, death threats.... after everything, it was hard to see the kid as just a kid. But right here at this moment; looking at the tuft of blonde hair peeking out of the tiny ball sitting next to him, Tim couldn’t help but be glad that he’d got involved when he did. Was it reckless? Yes. But was it necessary? Absolutely. He wouldn’t take it back if he could. Wouldn’t change the outcome no matter how disastrous it had turned out.

Turning off the car, he took a deep breath and gave himself the time to settle down his nerves. Whether he liked it or not, Tim was in for the long haul. Whatever web of criminal activities he’d managed to stumble over, it wouldn’t vanish overnight and after taking their priced subject.... yeah, this wasn’t going to end anytime soon.

Normally the Titans would be his first go to when metas were involved but his friends were off planet and no matter how much he trusted the rest of the team, they had too many connections and loyalties to people that Tim couldn’t control. Bart, Cassie and Kon, those three Tim could trust with his life but with them being out of the equation for the moment, he would have to handle the situation on his own. And he could do it. Of course he could. Hiding shit from the Batman was something he’d become exceptionally good at; and he hadn’t been bad at it to begin with so.....

Still, the family had barely recovered from their recent fallout with Jason and these tiny lines of trust being built between them were important and if Tim wasn’t careful..... He didn’t want to break what Bruce had tried so hard to restore. He couldn’t do that to his family and yet.....

Shifting slightly, Tim let his eyes trace over the sleeping figure next to him and his stomach coiled. The kid looked so small. Dirty, bruised, hurt and so so suspicious of the world. And who could blame him? Tim had literally met the child while the kid was strapped down to a metal table being experimented on with God knows what. And after the--- Cutting himself off, Tim shook his head viciously to get rid of the memories and closed his eyes.

He trusted Bruce. He trusted Dick and Jason and Alfred but..... Meta humans weren’t welcome in Gotham and with this kid’s past... it was safe to say that Bruce would likely hand him over to the Justice League and call it a day or—take over the whole investigation and leave Tim out of it. But.... Tim.... He’d promised the kid he would save him. He’d promised.

He hadn’t saved him yet and Tim was eighteen now. He could handle this. He’d handled everything in his life so far; not well, but he’d done it, so this wouldn’t be any different.

‘Ok,’ he thought; leaning over his seat to fumble blindly until his fingers found the thick folder he’d thrown in the back of the car.‘I’ll figure it out. Keep the kid safe and dismantle M.E.T and then I’ll find somewhere permanent for him. Easy enough. Nothing I can't handle.’

Yep, Tim could do this. By himself. No problem.

Cradling the folder that had lead him into this mess in the first place, Tim meticulously pushed all his worries, all his fears, all his anxious feelings into the tiny box at the back of his mind and locked it down. Concerns for another day, he thought grimly before turning on the air-conditioner and waiting.

Waking up the kid in any way that would startle him was a recipe for disaster, so.... Tim would have to make him wake up on his own and sure enough, less than five minutes later the kid started to stir. Soft inaudible muttering accompanying his movements until a face popped up behind the folded arms and blue eyes snapped open to meet Tim’s own steady gaze. “You with me?” Tim asked, keeping his voice as soothing as possible but the kid still tensed up immediately; whatever sleeplessness still clouding his eyes melting away in an instance. Curling even further against his seat, the blonde glared; frown pulling his lips down into an almost snare and Tim might have felt threatened if whoever was glaring at him wasn't half his size and he hadn’t dealt with Damian for years, so all that look served to do was let Tim observe the kid closer and notice how tired he looked.

“We’re here,” he said, not expecting an answer from the kid. At this point if the brat didn’t want to talk to him there was nothing Tim could do to make him. “I have a private elevator installed so we can get up to my apartment without meeting anyone. Sounds good?” He’s already opening the door before he has finished speaking; folder under one arm and keys held in the other.

“Coming?” He asked when halfway out the car he noticed the kid had yet to move. The minute the words left his mouth the kid scrambled out the car, slamming the door loudly and making Tim wince.

‘Brat,’ he thought, but didn’t say anything about it as he closed his own side and locked the vehicle before quickly making his way to the elevator on the other side; careful to keep an ear out for the soft pitter patter of feet following three steps behind him.

Stepping into the elevator, Tim made sure to warn the kid just in case. “I don’t know if you’ve ever taken an elevator before,” he muttered, keeping his gaze firmly on the buttons but not pressing the familiar square just yet. “But it goes up slowly and you feel this slight tug at the base of your stomach.” Turning slightly his gaze meets the ice cold ones of the kid, the kid who’d somehow managed to wedge himself at the very corner of the elevator, as far away from Tim as possible. “Is that ok?” A jerky nod was his answer and Tim nodded back, pressing the button and watching as the doors shut and with a slight jolt the elevator started moving.

A tiny gasp from behind him made Tim stiffen; preparing himself for what might follow, one hand already going to his pocket, but thankfully nothing happened, and the kid only squeezed himself even further into the corner.

Sighing in relief, Tim didn’t comment on the kid’s reaction and when the elevator finally dinged on the right floor, the doors had barely opened when the kid darted out and was stumbling his way to the living room in his too big of a gray jumpsuit.

Tim himself took his own time stepping out and slowly taking of his shoes as he watched the blonde mop of hair scanning the livingroom from top to bottom with the wary eyes of someone who’d watched the world burn. By the time Tim stepped into the same room, the kid had curled himself up into the far corner of one of the couches; white leather dirtying under the filth of his clothes, but Tim only blinked slowly at the fact before shaking it off.

Not important.

“You can take a shower if you want,” he said instead, pointing a thumb down the hallway to the left. “It can’t be pleasant wearing those clothes for long.” The kid glares and Tim sighs.

He’d never been that difficult his entire life. Tim was sure of it.

“Look,” he said, staying right where he was as not to scare the kid further. “You don’t have to shower if you don’t want to, but maybe wash your hands or something? It’ll make you feel better and I have some clothes around here probably, that you can wear.”

Blue eyes stare up at him with eerie blankness that Tim would have found impressive on anyone else but only felt his heart breaking when he saw it on the kid, and....

Tim really wanted to know his name.

He knew his number. God, when he’d first seen those letters and numbers he hadn’t even known a person was behind them let alone a kid and now.... Seeing the same code tattooed on the kid’s neck whenever his blonde hair moved ever so slightly.... Disgust wedged itself in Tim’s throat.

He wasn’t going to call the kid by a number. He’d rather refer to him as the child he was than do that. After everything....

A shift in the corner made him snap back into focus and his eyes met the blue ones staring back at him, now with a hint of defeat in them, going by the slumped shoulders and the mild pout on the kid’s face. A tiny nod sealed the child’s decision and Tim gave him a mild smile in response. “Ok,” he said. “I’ll get the bath ready for you and you just....” Waving his arms around in awkward motion he shrugged; almost missing the slight amusement that briefly flickered across the kid’s lips. “Yeah,” he finished his sentence; feeling mildly better that he’d managed to trigger something else other than suspicion in the kid. “You just wait here or something.”

With that he hurried down the hall. Briefly pausing at his room to lock the folder behind the vault before going to the bathroom.

“Shit,” he muttered. He’d apparently forgotten to clean up after himself since the bright lit room looked as if someone had bled out on it, and.... Well, it exactly what had happened, but it’s not like Tim could let the kid see this. If he wasn’t already freaked out, he sure as hell would be after seeing bloody bandages, a discarded bullet and a Red Robin uniform just lying on the ground. Sighing, he began filling up the bath and while the water was heating up he got to work cleaning. Well versed in the aftermath of hiding evidence of his superheroing, he got the job done quick and hanging up the suit behind the hidden wall in his room he went to go get the kid.

“Go get yourself cleaned up,” he said, standing at the entrance of the living room. “I’ll find you something to wear.”

The kid doesn’t say anything, just scoots down the sofa, feet barely reaching the ground as he jumps off and shuffles his way past him, bathroom door slapping shut couple of seconds later.

Huffing, Tim made his way back to his room. Determined to find at least something remotely wearable for the brat. Tim wouldn’t deny that he was.... on the shorter side of the spectrum when it came to his family, but even he wasn’t as short as a ten years old? Nine? Either way, the kid was literally half his size, so.....

Scratching at his head, he scanned through his wardrobe carefully. Maybe Dick had left some of Damian’s clothes last time they visited. His brother always wanted him and the devil spawn to bond so he always tried to make them both comfortable with each other; failing but still....

Riffling through his bottom drawer he let out a triumphant noise when he finally managed to find some of Damian’s old clothes. “Bit extensive Dick,” he muttered, bringing a bundle of clothes to his eyes. It’s like his brother expected the gremling to crash with him for extended period of time or something. Snorting, he shook his head and laid the material out on his bed. ‘Yeah, that hadn’t gone well at all.’

‘Now,’ he thought, running his finger over the material. ‘I’m sure he doesn’t want anything that exposes his arms so t-shirts are out, but...’ Frowning, he pulled out one of Damian’s long sleeved shirts. It didn’t feel very comfortable to the touch and the kid might not be able to sleep in them.

What to do?

In the end he decided on one of Damian’s sleeping pants and one of his older shirts he’d stolen from Dick when he was thirteen. He’d been a rather small kid so if it fit him then, it would probably fit the brat too.

Finally having decided, he was just about to take them to the bathroom when a bone chilling scream pierces the air and Tim is off. Sprinting out of his room he raced down the hall almost crashing into the opposing wall before screeching to a stop and practically flinging open the door. The most horrible conclusions running through his brain all the while.

What if they’d found him? What if he’d hurt himself? What if his family had come to visit uninvited? What if, what if, what if......

Tim should have stayed with him. Or at least stayed outside the door so--

His eyes fall on the figure on the ground before slowly tracing up to the broken mirrors and the shattered glass on the floor and he just knows.

“Oh,” he muttered, sinking to the floor outside the bathroom, gaze resting on the tiny, bruised naked child curled up the wet ground. “The mirrors?”

Stupid stupid stupid Tim.

The kid was literally strapped to a table when he found him, mirrors all around and Tim hadn’t even thought....

“I’m sorry,” he said; trying to keep his voice steady. “I should have covered them up.” The kid only shakes where he sits; soapy hair pressed against his skull and fingers practically digging holes into his bare arms. “Hey,” Tim said. “Hey kid, look at me please.”

He doesn’t, but his body twitches and his chin raises ever so slightly so he most have heard him. Good, good, that was good.

“I’m sorry. I should have been more careful, but I need you to tell me if you’re ok. I need to know if you’re fine.”

Nothing, and Tim frowns. Edge of concern bleeding in and mixing with his current anxious state. His left wrist is throbbing, his mind his frazzled and he is so damn tired..... How did Dick do this?

“Kid?”

A sudden rumble and then the room is shaking. Water rises and wash clothes, shampoo bottles, medical kit, all are, with a silent tug of power floating dangerously above them in vicious circles and Tim pales. Fuck.

“Kid... kid!”

Nothing.

Shit, shit, shit.

The boy is now clutching at his hair; eyes scrunched shut and low keening noises escaping his mouth and Tim knows what's about to happen. Knows how terrible it's going to play out and... “N5200L!”

Everything freezes. The kid stills, the objects tremble for a hot second and then—Tim is throwing himself over the kid before he knows it, hissing softly as bathroom items start raining down on them. His wrist burns when a shampoo bottle hits it on its way down but Tim doesn’t move and when it all stops he quickly scoots away from the kid and raises his hands. “It’s ok,” he says; wet, bruised and tired but voice soft and gentle as they meet the silent teary eyes of the blonde. “It’s ok. You did nothing wrong. It’s ok.”

The kid shakes his head, lips wobbly and eyes caught in that silent despair that keeps breaking Tim’s heart. He hadn’t wanted to use that name and yet, he’d still done it. ‘Careful Tim,’ his mind whispered. ‘Your inner Janet is showing.’

“You don’t have to worry about any of this,” he continued, trying to sound as much like Alfred as possible. "I’ll clean this up no problem, you just... You need to rinse off the soap and then you can leave.”

A tiny whimper and... damn it.

“Your hair is still--” he started, knowing that the kid couldn’t really go back to sleep unless he watched out the soap. What if it got into his eyes or something, but the minute he started speaking, the kid shakes his head vigorously. Turning away from the bathtub. “Fine,” Tim said, feeling a lump in his throat as he finally found himself actually seeing the kid for the firs time.

The cuts, the bruises, the dozens of scars carved into his skin. The blood.

No kid should ever.... even in his worst days Tim had never- It was as if the kid's body was made up of trauma upon trauma. Scars barely healed before others were stitched on top of them. No wonder he panicked when he saw himself in the mirror or in the water reflection or--- whatever had triggered him.... No wonder he--

“Is it ok if I just wash your hair out here then?”

Wet eyes blink at him in confusion and Tim smiles; finding that his eyes are itching suspiciously. “I’ll wash your hair where you are,” he says, pointing at the water jug by the sink. “Two or three times might do it, yeah?” The kid opened his mouth and for a second..... but then he clicked it shut, looking away.

Tim Frowned. “If you’re worried about the floor don’t be,” he said finally. “It has a drain so it’ll be ok.”

It takes agonizing couple of minutes of just sitting in uncomfortable cold silence where Tim had already begun cleaning up the glass shards; silently worrying about the kid catching a cold when there is finally a shuffling of noise coming from the child and when Tim turns around to face him; a tiny nod is his answer. Nodding back, Tim scoops up the last shards of glass the best he can and with a bundle of toilet paper throws it all in the trash.

Then standing up and side-stepping the mess on the ground he picks up the jug, fills it up with hot water and drops down next to the kid. He doesn’t react when he flinches, instead carefully hoovering over him until he finally stills before reaching up to shield the kid's eyes and slowly pouring the water over his hair. The kid is tense the whole way through, but nothing breaks and nothing goes flying so Tim knows there is at least some trust given to him.

It takes a couple more trips to the sink before Tim has all the soap out of the kid’s hair and by that time the kid is practically leaning into his side, exhausted. “All done,” Tim muttered; draping a towel around the shivering figure; careful not to put pressure on his bruises. “I need you to stand up for me. The floor is too wet for you to sit on.” The kid blinks slowly before looking down and yeah, they are both practically sitting in water and slowly the kid stands up, Tim hands on his shoulders keeping him steady. And when he is finally standing on his own two feet Tim follows, picking up another towel from the hanger to dry the kid’s hair. “There,” he says, stepping away from the child. “There are some clothes for you in my room. You can go change there. I’ll take care of this.”

The kid doesn’t even spare him a second glance before he darts out of the room and Tim finally lets his shoulders sag in relief. Getting to work scooping the water into the drain, Tim silently congratulate himself on not messing it up for his first time. He doesn’t know for how long he’ll be able to keep it up, but so far so good.

So far so good.

@miss-choco-chips @throneoffirebreathingbitchqueen

#tim drake #batfamily #Batfamily Fanfic #red robin #batman comics #young justice #tim being a sad dad #this chapter is waaaaay longer than I thought it would be #wow #thank you all for reading #and whoever wanna be tagged let me know #I don't mind

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myimaginedcorner · 2 years

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CHAPTER 4 WRITING FINISHED!!

Hoi hoi, long time no see!!

I hope you're happy to finally see me back here, hehe. Although these past few months have been complicated, truth is that as of lately my life has been going well, with good news cheering me up and my productivity being much more... productive (yes, I'm a writer). And of course, thanks to that, I can FINALLY say that I've FINISHED WRITING CH4!! Gosh, this took waaaaay longer than I thought it would. I really need to make sure that the next one doesn't make you wait for so long!!

I want to thank EVERYONE who beared with me through this long period of time, as well as those who have joined us recently. You all have served as my motivation and my strength to not let my laziness or my bad mood to get between me and this work, using the time that I had between summatives to progress with my chapter as much as I could. Seriously, I never thought that having support and community could mean so much... so I just want to thank you for being here and showing support!

Chapter 4 currently has 62K written words and is divided into two different routes, which depend on your decision at the end of Chapter 3. Have you decided to make a deal with the devil, or have your instincts advised you to stay away from his influence? Whatever you chose, a new small adventure awaits you on your search for a guide, someone who can lead you through *cough cough* less legal ways *cough cough* to the mystic tower of the renown Visionary. In this adventures, it's time to dive a bit deeper into your companions' lives, discover some secrets or fall for some traps. Listen, watch, and make your conclusions - who knows when will be the next chance for you to find clues??

Chapter 5 will be more MC-centred, so I decided to make Chapter 4 - a SMALL chapter at first XD - more RO-centred, with some individual routes prepared within each adventure. I still need to edit my writing and pass it into CoG script, but I'm positive that I can have it ready for you sometime next week as my latest deadline.

See you soon!!

#scales of justice #interactive story #hosted games #writing

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folklauerate · 2 years

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Wow you have so much going!! Can you share more from Cowboy like me? I can’t wait for the return of that one.

Waaaaay too much going :,)

Cowboy Like Me is next on the docket, though! I'm hoping to finish that last chapter up, edit it furiously, and have it up soon!! Here's a sneak peek :)

T-Minus 48 Hours

“How do I look?”

Anthony found he didn’t quite possess the words to let her know.

Kate laughed. “I’ll take that a yes to this dress, then.”

Of all ridiculous places to be, they were at Barneys. The charity gala at the Met had a strict black-tie dress code and neither Kate nor Anthony had anticipated needing to attend - hence the last-minute shopping.

It was, as it always was, a bit easier for him; he knew exactly which offerings at Ralph Lauren would fit him, knew exactly which outfit wouldn’t need to be tailored (they certainly didn’t have time for one, nor did they have time for Daphne to insist she could sew very well, only to butcher his sleeves), and if he hadn’t known before that he’d looked good in his tux, he bloody well did when Kate had marched into the dressing room with him, a heady glint in her eyes. It was only the fact that they had very little time that stopped them - and, likely, the poor dressing room attendant who had strode in at the last second with a bow tie.

And now he was seated on a couch in front of another dressing room, this time Kate being the one to pop out and ask his opinion. It was mildly amusing; there were at least three other boyfriends doing the same thing, and if it wasn't for the rather pressing issue at hand - the fact that their shopping excursion was necessary for perhaps the most important heist of their lives - it would have been downright amazing. For what was better than waiting for one’s girlfriend to try on slinky dresses, the air heavy with the promise that he’d get to rip them off later?

Anthony allowed himself to imagine the very best - something he had been doing more and more often. Suppose they pulled it off, suppose everything went according to plan, and they’d have Nigel Berbrooke and the feds off their tail, a house in Kent he had to show Kate around, a lifetime full of waiting for Kate to peek out of dressing rooms.

The thought was so delicious, so tantalising, so intoxicating, that he decided, then and there, that he had to believe in it. He had to believe everything would go right. He had to believe that he was going to live longer than thirty-eight. He had to believe in a long life because he wanted every damn minute he was allowed - and then some - with Kate.

With that, Anthony’s lips crept into a smile. He had another thing to add to his list of moments he was looking forward to.

An engagement ring on Kate’s finger. A reception on the grounds of Aubrey Hall. Matching wedding rings for both of them.

#cowboy like me #my fav silly little fic #kathony #kate sharma #anthony bridgerton #kathony as international sexy globe trotting thieves #its so fun to write #except for right now lmfao #fanfic #wip game

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mxndoscyarika · 4 years

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Red Sunsets (Javier Peña x Chinese!reader) | Chapter 6: Igualdad

Author’s note: It’s finally here! Sorry this took waaaaay longer than normal, it’s not even very long either 😭 But I hope you like it! This is a filler chapter to transition towards the good stuff, if you know what I mean 😏

Summary: Family fights, grudges, and determination. Those three things defined your journey as you navigated through the workings of the DEA. Getting in was hard, and catching Escobar was even harder. You joined Javier Peña and Steve Murphy in the hunt for Escobar, forming bonds and life lessons along the way.

Like my writing? Here’s my masterlist.

Red Sunsets masterlist

Warning(s): smoking, gun violence, explosions, swearing, smut (fingering, penetration)

“Do you see anything yet?” you asked, fingers playing with the edge of the map. Messina refused to let you join in on the mission, so you worked with what you had. Sitting in a darkened room listening to incoming messages on a headset wasn’t exactly invigorating or productive, but it was enough to keep you focused on what mattered. Javier and a few of Carrillo’s men were heading into a neighborhood reported to house several of Escobar’s men. Centra Spike had gathered enough intel to pinpoint a block or two with high activity, and the accounts given supported the data, so the mission was green-lit.

Steve sat beside you with his own headset, a cigarette balanced between his fingers. Whether he was paying attention or not, you didn’t know. All you knew was that you didn’t need two agents monitoring calls.

“Not yet,” Javi responded, his deep voice crackling from the static. “Relax, hermosa, there’s barely anyone out in the street.”

You frowned. “Cariño, that’s a bad s-”

The sound of gunfire cut you off, the sounds of bullets raining down on the street roaring in your ears like torrential rainfall. Shouts between Carrillo’s men and Javi were drowned out by the barrage of bullets.

“Shit!” Javi hissed, his voice clearer. “It’s a trap! We need backup, they’re on the rooftop-”

Something nearby exploded, metal screeching against the pavement. A car? It was loud, far too loud to be safe for your partner. You flung off the headset, ears ringing. “I’m going in.”

“Oh no you’re not,” Steve said, grabbing your arm. “We can’t risk any more of us going out there. I’ll call for backup so we can get them out.” He pointed to the headset. “Stay here and stay updated on their status. Peña listens to you; make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid.”

Gritting your teeth, you nodded and stalked back to the desk. The chair creaked under your weight when you practically threw yourself onto it and snatched up the headset. “Javi, are you there? Javi, do you copy?”

The seconds that ticked by felt like hours, but then you heard his voice. “I’m here,” he rasped, breathing heavily. “One of the sicarios is out. I’m in pursuit.”

Your eyes widened. “Javi no-”

The steady crackling of the radio stopped. You sighed and tossed the headset back onto the desk. He was on his own.

Rubbing your hands over your face, you leaned back in the chair and kept listening for any signal from Javi. You considered going back to your desk and continuing on with the reports, but you couldn’t bring yourself to leave the room. What if Javi called for help and no one was there to answer?

Hours passed since the radio went dead. Or had it only been a few minutes? You weren’t sure. When Carrillo called in to announce that they were arriving at the station, you forced yourself to leave the headset behind and greet them. Maybe Javi wasn’t responding because he was with Carrillo.

You winced as you walked out the front doors, the sun much too bright for someone who’d just spent at least an hour in a dark room. Blinking to adjust to the light, you jogged over to where the cars were parked.

“Dónde está Peña?” you asked, your heart vibrating in your chest. Your eyes scanned the vehicles for his familiar sunglasses, mustache, lips, anything. If he wasn’t with Carrillo, then where was he? Dragged behind a trash can on some random street? Collapsed on the roof of a comuna? In the hospital, just like you were only a couple months prior?

“Está con los otros, él capturó un sicario y vuelvan ahora,” the colonel replied smoothly, taking out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. He smirked at you. “Are you worried about him?”

Uncrossing your arms, you give him one last glance before turning around and returning to the office. You heard him scoff behind you.

You shot up from your seat when Javi entered your shared office, heat blooming in your chest. He stopped as you approached him, a hand resting on his hip. Ignoring how his gaze followed you, you raised your hand and turned his head to the side. There was a scrape on his cheek, probably from when the explosion occurred. Thankfully, it seemed shallow and wasn’t bleeding. “Doesn’t look too bad. Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, hermosa-”

“What were you thinking?” you scolded, hands searching for any other injuries. While he didn’t get hurt often, you wanted to make sure he wasn’t hiding anything. You’d learned that the hard way a few weeks prior when he’d hit his head and got a concussion. “You need to think before you act, Javi. You can’t just run off on your own.”

“Pretty bold of you to say that as the one who got shot because she went after La Quica,” he scoffed, rolling his eyes.

“That’s different,” you retorted, brushing your thumb over a scratch on the back of his hand. Specks of dirt were still embedded in his skin. You’d find some ointment for him to help it heal faster.

His voice was rough as he questioned, “How is it different? Why should I hold back for you when you won’t do the same for me?”

“You know why,” you replied, looking him in the eyes. There was a tightness in your chest as you tried to take a breath, like someone had a hand around your heart. In a way, there was.

“Enlighten me, agent L/N.”

The sound of your title passing through his lips nearly made you flinch. You couldn’t recall the last time you’d heard him call you by your last name. Or ‘agent,’ for that matter. It was always something like hermosa, or princesa, or cariño. You weren’t sure when it started, but it felt more natural than anything else.

You wanted to tell him. To tell him that you would miss him, that he was the only person who truly respected you. That he was the only person you’d ever met who embraced your culture with open arms and understood it was an asset, not a weakness. That he’d become a part of your life you didn’t want to lose. That he was more than just a DEA agent.

But it wasn’t the right time nor place for that.

Clenching your jaw shut, you tore your eyes away from his and dropped his hands from yours. Placing your hands on your hips, you forced your voice to be level. “You’re important to this mission. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.”

“So that’s it?” he asked, grabbing your arm before you could go beyond his reach. Even then, his touch was gentle. “I get killed and the entire operation collapses, but if you die then we just keep moving along?”

You shrugged. “Sounds about right. Be careful out there, agent Peña.”

With that, you shook off his hand and stalked off to find Carrillo.

Steve took a long drag from his cigarette as he watched the exchange, as he watched Javier’s shoulders sag when you walked away. They were fools. Such fools.

---

You weren’t sure how you found him, or why you chose him. All you knew was that you needed him more than ever.

The feeling of a man’s fingers inside you made you moan loudly. Your back arched against the bed. His fingers were thick and strong, much like Javier’s. A shiver ran down your spine as your partner’s name ran through your thoughts. If only it were him instead of the man you’d brought home.

The man groaned as you clenched tightly around him, Javi’s beautiful face painted on the inside of your eyelids. You wanted to feel his mustache brush against your thighs as he kissed his way closer to your aching pussy. You wanted to feel his soft lips suck on your wet folds and lap against your swollen clit. You wanted him. All of him. Since arriving in Colombia, you’d spent countless nights imagining his touch, sending yourself over the edge until your fingers pruned up and your mind was filled with girlish fantasies of your partner.

“Yes, yes, right there,” you cried, hips bucking up in time with his fingers. Cream leaked from your lips as you approached your orgasm. Deeper, deeper, you begged. “Más. Más! Jódeme!”

His finger sped up, curing against the spongy region inside you fast and hard. The pressure became too much, and you smiled as you imagined Javi’s deep brown eyes watching you intently. You tightened around the man’s digits as you reached your release, your juices gushing onto his hand. “Javi!”

On the other side of the city, the man of your dreams parked his car outside a brothel. He could still see the way you glared at him, how your brows furrowed and your beautiful lips turned down. You rarely got angry, and normally it wasn’t directed at him. So why did you?

Javi shook his head and entered the building, his soft brown locks falling into his face. He needed to get you out of his head before he did anything stupid.

You deserved a good man. Someone better than him, someone less reckless and damaged.

As he pounded into the woman below him, he closed his eyes and imagined your face, your lips. He’d only seen glimpses of your body, but just the image of you in the red slip was enough. He could see the peaks of your nipples straining against weak fabric, sensitive and begging to be touched. He imagined how beautiful you’d sound as you reached your peak, arching against him and pulling him deeper into you.

It was enough.

You were enough.

“Fuck, Y/N!” he gasped, his hips stuttering as he came. The woman—María?—moaned languidly beneath him, her cunt pulsing around him as he continued thrusting into her. His hand made contact with her ass, the supple flesh bouncing when he smacked it. Her pussy tightened around him, milking him dry. Javi wondered if you would do the same, if you’d ride him until he was covered in a pool of his and your cum. The thought of you cumming around his cock sent him over the edge again.

Translations:

“Dónde está Peña?” Where is Peña?

“Está con los otros, él capturó un sicario y vuelvan ahora” He’s with the others, he caught the sicario and they’re returning now.

“Más. Más! Jódeme!” More! More! Fuck me!

Tagging:

Permanent taglist: @cinewhore @randomness501 @pedropascalisadilf @ahopelessromanticwritersworld @catfishingmorales @halfwaythereroyal @fioccodineveautunnale @talesfromtheguild @tortles @ladamari68 @theokatcov @snivellusim @starryluce @inked-poet @this-cat-is-dea @shewritesandplants @chews-erotically @thefandomimagines @emesispo @mindless--ramblings

Red Sunsets taglist: @engineeredfiction @reylo-hope @yespolkadotkitty @geistbuster @far-too-tired-to-exist @faiinal @promiscuoussatan @thewaythisis @earl-01

Let me know if you’d like to be added to either of the lists!

#javier peña x reader #javier peña #javier pena x reader #narcos #pedro pascal #pedro pascal x reader #pedro character fanfiction #my writing

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sometimesleifwrites · 4 years

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Fandom History Meme

Embrace your past and get to know your friends’ fandom origins!

Rules: Post gifs of your fandoms/ships starting with your most current hyper fixation and work backward. (Bonus points if you share any stories about how or when you got into that ship! But not necessary!!) Then tag anyone whose fandom history you’d like to learn about!

I was tagged by @atomrealm and @paranoid-peaches. I realized I've obsessed with waaaaay too many ships over the years so I narrowed it down to eight!

Geraskier, (December 2019) is my newest ship obsession. I instantly fell in love with the pair of them. I'm a sucker for the bad boy with the heart of gold and soft boy that won't hesitate to kill a man combo they bring. Geralt is so emotionally constipated and tough but Jaskier see's through the facade from the start. I've even started (like two days ago) writing a multi chapter fic that I'll eventually be posting on my other blog @sadsilktrader.

Ineffable Husbands! (Summer, 2019) I've been a fan of Good Omens since the 90's and the show reignited my love for Crowly and Aziraphale in a huge way. Michael Sheen and David Tenant are amazing and I've had major crushes on the both of them separately for 10+ years so I wasn't surprised at all how hard I fell for this ship.

Stormpilot! (TFA, 2015) I fell in love with Finn and Poe the moment they were on screen together. I legit squealed in the theater when Poe told Finn to keep his jacket because it looked good on him 😍😍😍

Hannigram. (Hannibal released in 2013 but I watched it in 2014) My friends this ship hit me like a ton of bricks. I'm actually not a fan of gore but this show is worth it because Good Lord the tension is so excruciating in the best sort of way. I've read an obscene amount of fic about these two.

Stucky. (Captain America: The First Avenger, 2011) This wasn't a ship I was expecting to fall for but then I watched Captain America and that was that. I had zero interest in the all American hero and then I saw the two of them together in Brooklyn, Bucky trying his hardest to keep Steve safe and Steve going off and just throwing himself into harms way.

Ten and Rose (Doctor Who, 2006) So I was a senior in high school and some of my friends kept on telling me i just Had to watch this show but I was stupid busy and then one day I got sick and had to stay home and guess what was having a marathon on the sci-fi channel? I was in love and my heart still breaks when I think about them too much.

Sam and Frodo (The Fellowship of the Ring, 2001) I saw the movie on Christmas 2001. For the next six years I was 1000% obsessed. I was going through a really rough period of my life and it was my lifeline. It is my favorite ship ever other than...

Spirk/Kirk and Spock. I grew up watching TOS reruns and as early as I can remember I thought that they were married. They will forever hold a special place in my heart and I owe my love of fandom and emotionally repressed men to them.

There are So many other fandoms and ships I could mention but I didn't want to make this post even longer than it already is!

Tagging: @fueled-by-fanfic @malcolmbright @whumpybliss @prodigalsonheadcanons and anyone else who would like to join in!

#ship history meme #ship history #geraskier #hannigram #ineffable husbands #stormpilot #stucky #sam and frodo #tos spirk #spirk #ten and rose #my collection of lovely beings

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saintheartwing · 4 years

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So Lily ONCE AGAIN Responded

So basically she thinks i’m a Bible-Thumper. And she also acts like I only care about the rich people.

“Ironically, Aliana slaughters a bunch of security guards just doing their job in that same chapter but nobody mentions it. They only care about the rich people.”

Uh...evidently she didn’t bother to read my “So Lily Responded Yet AGAIN” post where I said...and I’m quoting directly here...

“Also, I know someone will bring up “But what about Aliana killing Rey’s parents”? Yeah that was murder too, she killed them in a fit of rage and they were unarmed. They may have been assholes but it was still murder. I didn’t want to, at first, bring it up because part of me felt “well she was kinda in a really bad mood and she got triggered by what they said” and I almost felt bad for Aliana...but reconsidering it...yeah. That was wrong too. It’s wrong to kill unarmed people. Wrong to kill people who can’t fight back. THAT’S murder and THAT’S wrong. Then there was the whole “when she went to get the CodeMaster” thing. She killed a lot of security guards. I was SORTA willing to overlook that because those guys WERE kinda armed...” Yeah, I kinda addressed the larger “she’s a murderer” thing not just in relation to those rich jerks. But you know what? She doesn’t think the criticism of Aliana is fair because as a Sith, her character’s SUPPOSED to have a darker morality. Okay...fine. Except Rey also casually murders a guard for accosting a refugee. Forgot that. She literally force-snaps his neck.

Okay, you know what...I’ve changed my mind. Aliana making those stormtroopers before doing the mass suicide, and Rey doing that neck snap of the guard outta nowhere for accosting a refugee, that kinda does seem like murder. It’s gross. You can’t just kill people for being kinda dickish.

And yeah, this is the full scene: “Rey glanced over and saw a Coruscant security guard accosting a Twi’lek refugee and scoffed. “Really? Because it seems like they have time to stick guns in everyone’s faces.”“When you’re wealthy enough, you can put almost anyone in your pocket,” Leia said with a downcast expression. “Official security teams make the best crime muscle.” “Oh yeah?” Rey said, almostly tauntingly. She reached her hand out and twisted her wrist. The guard’s head snapped violently to the side and he fell twitching to the ground. The Twi’lek glanced around in surprise, before getting up and sprinting away as fast as she could. “Hmm… seems like they need work.”“Rey!” Amilyn exclaimed incredulously. “He was accosting a refugee. What, was I supposed to just do nothing?!” Rey yelled.”

Uh, yeah, you can’t just kill a cop on the street if they’re asking someone to get out of their car so they can search their pockets. You can’t just kill a security guard in a store or mall because they wanted someone to come with them to check to see if they stole something. Yeah he’s an armed guard but the way she did it, this does basically make it murder.

And that “REY” from Amilyn is literally the ONLY criticism Rey gets. Guess what the next lines are? From LEIA of all people? ““I was more expecting you to go torture him a bit until his fellow guards laid down supressing fire allowing him to get away,” Leia said with a shrug. “You seem so fond of that tactic lately.”

So no objections whatsoever. I guess the SUGGESTION is supposed to be “All these guards on Coruscant are corrupt because the system is so unwieldy and unreliable”. Yeah, except there’s no proof that guard was corrupt or anything, he was just being kinda dickish and she casually kills him.

Our HEROINES, ladies and gentlemen. Our HEROINES. I think I’ve made my point. The main protagonists that we’re supposed to root for in her story are just WAY too comfortable with casually killing people and the story doesn’t really treat it as a bad thing save with maybe a few lines like “Rey!” or “I’m glad you’re on our side” or “Okay, this is a new side of you that I’m not sure I like,” Yeah, cuz that’s REALLY calling her out there. Fight the good fight, Poe.

I’ve said my piece. I just think it’s unpleasant and unethical behavior and frankly uncreative. Killing is the lowest common denominator. It’s the easy way out. And someone with Force powers should be smarter and more creative in how they handle problems. And so should Lily.

Can’t wait for another long post where she personally insults me, calls me a “fucking idiot” again and yells at me for being a Bible thumper or calls my morality “childish”. I find it pretty astounding that she says I’M the one having a break down when she’s the one who immediately went to multiple personal attacks, straw-manning my argument several times, and made more posts complaining about me than I did complaining about her STORY. Cuz that’s the thing. My critique was of her story and the character, not really Lily herself. But pretty much Lily’s ENTIRE bunch of criticism is mostly about ME being stupid and wrony and yadda yadda, that comes FIRST, defending Aliana’s behavior is second, and she only focused on the “Why do you care she killed rich assholes” thing, not the whole “Wow, she is WAAAAAY too comfortable with casual murder and killing people” thing that was my main point.

Also, you know what else bothers me? I left another review on her story about a week or so ago, I tried to overlook that casual murder thing to bring up a critique about the story that I thought was fair...that there was no real drama left, no threat left. Because think about it.

There’s no big superweapon left to destroy like in TFA. Nobody is chasing the Resistance down and they could be mere hours from death like in TLJ. No huge superfleet that’s gonna destroy the galaxy in a matter of days like in RoS. No “ticking clock”. And there’s no big bad left that’s a real threat. They CREAMED Kylo Ren. Straight out. Aliana and Rey are just that powerful, Snoke’s dead, so...the bad guys aren’t a threat anymore but are still around and only exist to just...occasionally pop in courtesy of Lily to remind you they still exist. Or rather, they exist for Rey and Aliana to call them up and go “ha ha we’re still alive eff you”.

So then, where’s the tension? Where’s the threat? If the bad guys aren’t a threat, then there’s no real conflict left. Aliana and Rey are basically unbeatable. The Republic can’t stand up to them and them TRYING to or even being at all concerned about the threat either would pose is treated as wrong. Their friends can’t stand up to them and won’t. And the bad guys are no threat. So...why are the bad guys still around? So I said “Why don’t you just have them go defeat them already, and you can focus the story on the interpersonal relationships between the characters, which is clearly the heart of the story anyhow”? After all, the bad guys aren’t serving much of a purpose anymore because they’re no longer a threat or a real obstacle, so just get rid of them and you can focus on the two lovers and antics and good times with them exploring the galaxy and being on their own with each other. I thought that was a fair point.

Course, she deleted it because...well, stuffed if I know. I honestly don’t know why she doesn’t just have the characters just go in and bust up the First Order in the very next chapter, it’s not like they could stand up to Aliana’s raw power.

Just saying.

#the sith resurgence #lily orchard #star wars

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princessamericachavez · 5 years

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FJORD’S PLAYLIST

Welcome to my overthinking where I literally meta over meta. Because what else am I supposed to do when Travis gives me such a good Fjord playlist to freak out over.

So, y’know, meta under the cut. Here we go:

1. Bottom of the Deep Blue Sea by Missio

Panic. Confusion. The cold, dark and salty depths with no end in sight. And then light — but, how? Fjord shouldn’t be here. What is he forgetting? No time to ponder or fight something that seems to have a plan of its own.

I FEEL LIKE FJORD’S DROWNING WAS WAAAAY MORE TRAUMATIC THAN WE AS A FANDOM ACKNOWLEDGE, OKAY?

Like, way way waaaaay more horrifying than just “I passed out and woke up in the beach with cool new powers” and more “I think I literally died.”

The berth surrounding my body crushing every bit of bone The salt, it seeps in through the pores of my open skin I wait on you inside the bottom of the deep blue sea I wait on you inside the bottom of the deep blue

Fjord shouldn’t be here. How many times do you think he’s thought that? Not only the fact that he should, by all accounts, be dead, but that out of his whole crew why would he get to live while everyone else is lost and gone.

Fjord has some fucking deep survivor’s guilt, y’all. I’m telling you.

2. The Funeral by Band of Horses

Things seem the same – but where is Vandran? Who will guide Fjord now? One thing is for sure, the Fjord he was before is dead and gone. Bury the pain and live on.

AGAIN, I FEEL LIKE WE AS A FANDOM DON’T ACKNOWLEDGE ENOUGH HOW FREAKING LOST FJORD IS WITHOUT VANDRAN. (i will never get used to that freaking spelling but I guess it’s the official so fine)

He was Fjord’s mentor, father figure and overall savior. He’s the person who made the difference in his life, who pulled him out of what seems like hell and gave him a purpose and sense of self. Losing that is no small deal, and I think a lot of his actions in the past several episodes have been guided by that pain and that need to find out at least what happened to him and who this man was before they met.

To the outside the dead leaves, they're on the lawn Before they died, had trees to hang their hope

He didn’t even get to give Vandran a proper funeral or goodbye, y’all.

Fjord’s whole arc is just one last desperate attempt to connect to Vandran, to feel like he maybe hasn’t lost him entirely (probably the reason Jester keeps bringing him up, too; she knows Fjord the best and probably understand that urge is what’s driving him).

3. Wanted Dead or Alive by Bon Jovi

Time to go. Keep moving and don’t look back. Fjord’s only known two lives — one he loved and valued, the other he detested and wishes he could forget. Only by moving north and away from this city will Fjord be able to start fresh. Now to disappear… ya’ll.

Time to go. Keep moving and don’t look back. I’ve said this before, and I will say it again: Fjord is a survivor. He’s gotten this far by not giving up, by doing whatever it takes to survive, and he’s not about to stop and give up now.

He’s lost everything he ever had, good and bad, he’s lost the little sense of stability he grew to cherish, and all he has now is the drive to start again. To not give up.

It's all the same, only the names will change Everyday, it seems we're wastin' away Another place where the faces are so cold I drive all night just to get back home

He’s never been anyone, anyway, never had a family, a last name, property... all he has is himself and his resolve to keep going.

4. The Sound of Silence by Disturbed

Love me some Disturbed, and this rendition builds like one of Fjord’s dreams. Terrifying and incredible visions flood his mind, and his confusion is only matched by the sometime physical manifestations that accompany his dreams. Can’t help but think of Caleb’s memories at the same time.

WOAH TRAVIS.

I feel so bad because Fjord seems to really be terrified of whatever is happening to him, even when some of it might be incredible and peak his curiosity, it feels like he’s just freak out.

Also interesting to feel like maybe Fjord finds a ghost of that darkness in Caleb, perhaps what drives him to confide in him, or trust him to stop the darkness if Fjord loses his way.

Hello darkness, my old friend I've come to talk with you again Because a vision softly creeping Left its seeds while I was sleeping And the vision that was planted in my brain Still remains Within the sound of silence

“Left its seed while I was sleeping” is such an on-point way to put the way Fjord is shaken by this visions, mulling over them when he wakes, trying to figure them out. After every dream, you can see his stance shift slightly as he tries to adapt to whatever new knowledge he acquired.

5. How Far I’ll Go by Auliʻi Cravalho

Let’s be honest – this is totally Fjord. Plus, you bitches were kidding yourself if you thought some musical numbers weren’t going in this playlist. Also, Disney.

FJORD IS A DISNEY PRINCE CONFIRMED.

Travis is a dork, also confirmed.

For real, though, I feel like this song captures Fjord’s excitement with his new life. He’s constantly pushing to see how far he can take his powers. For the first time, he probably feels there’s a chance that he will be someone, that he will “go to distance” (sorry not sorry). The world is no longer an island for Fjord, it extends beyond the horizon and he’s hungry (also not sorry) to see and experience it all.

Every turn I take, every trail I track Every path I make, every road leads back To the place I know, where I can not go, where I long to be

See the line where the sky meets the sea? It calls me And no one knows, how far it goes If the wind in my sail on the sea stays behind me One day I'll know, if I go there's just no telling how far I'll go

Also, for the first time in the list, this song is so full of hope for big and good things. I’m all here for this. LET FJORD ENJOY HIS NEW LIFE AFTER A LIFE TIME OF SUFFERING AND LOSS. PLEASE.

6. Heathens by Twenty One Pilots

We’re going to get each other killed. Who’s in charge of this ragtag bunch of misfits and criminals? And if no one is in charge, does anyone know what we’re doing? Pretty sure the answer is “no.” One thing is for sure, it’s best for the common stranger to mind their manners when addressing The Mighty Nein. Unless it’s a kind word, best keep your thoughts to yourself and move along, amigo.

I laughed so damn hard when I read this because that’s such an ON POINT definition of the M9.

Group of Heathens? Check. Gonna get each other killed? Check. Who tf is in charge? Check.

However, it also shed light in the idea that the M9 are dangerous and better not be crossed. It almost sounds like Fjord enjoys that. Can you blame him, after being through hell? To have a group of people where he feels like he has some power, that he can earn respect, that he can defend himself and those he loves? Unless it’s a kind word, best keep your thoughts to yourself and move along, amigo.

Welcome to the room of people Who have rooms of people that they loved one day Docked away Just because we check the guns at the door Doesn't mean our brains will change from hand grenades You're lovin' on the psychopath sitting next to you You're lovin' on the murderer sitting next to you You'll think, "How'd I get here, sitting next to you?" But after all I've said, please don't forget

All my friends are heathens, take it slow Wait for them to ask you who you know Please don't make any sudden moves You don't know the half of the abuse

YOU DON’T KNOW THE HALF OF THE ABUSE.

There’s a very strong sense in this song of “even if the world is against us we look after each other” and I love that mindset for this little group of disasters.

7. Overburdened by Disturbed

The weight of Fjord’s responsibilities weigh on him constantly. New powers, new mission, new friends, new crew. The last time he felt this comfortable, everything was ripped away from him — violently. He feels like the waves may be breaking over his head, and struggling to catch his breath he must keep a calm demeanor and steady hand — and push on.

We all know Fjord has been in over his head but it’s nice to see Travis put it so clearly. I think it’s also interesting to be reminded that most of Fjord’s calm and in control demeanor is just a front to hide his doubts and fears. The best example for that? The whole thing with Avantika and how some of the M9 (and the fandom) feared some of that was for real when his goal has always EXPLICITLY been to protect his friends.

Hell is still overburdened I must stand and wait in line Hell is still overburdened How have I been so determined maligned?

There’s the closing of the curtain In the play that was my life Countless chapter’s left unopened, tragedies inside I was fighting for a reason Holy blessed homicide Seems I have committed treason All I’ve sacrificed

In the end, though, he walks a thin line and falling over to the wrong side is all too easy.

8. Pray For Me by The Weekend, Kendrick Lamar

How dope was the Black Panther soundtrack? Fjord feels strange and exciting powers surging within him, and as much as he wants to push the envelope of what he’s capable of, he must rely on those he’s closest with to check him, to keep him grounded — or he might lose more than just his sense of self.

That’s such a good way of putting it. If Fjord dares push for this powers and chase his curiosities at all, it’s probably bevause he’s counting on the M9 to tell him when he goes too far.

I’m always ready for a war again Go down that road again It’s all the same I’m always ready to take a life again You know I’ll ride again It’s all the same (ooh, ooh, ooh) Tell me who’s gon’ save me from myself When this life is all I know Tell me who’s gon’ save me from this hell Without you, I’m all alone

I just really love the idea that Fjord is willing to go as far as it takes to survive, to neverbbe powerless again, to protect himself. That he is always ready to do what it takes… And that’s what he needs true saving from. Himself.

When Travis talks about Fjord losing more than his sense of self, I suspect he means his new friends. He’s afraid to lose their trust, and that might just be the thing that keeps him from risking too much. It does well to have something to lose, something worth protecting even over our own desires.

Without you, I’m all alone.

9.Sunflower by Post Malone & Swae Lee

It’s easy to let all of life’s shit get you down — and sometimes, you need only look as close as your friends. Watching Jester move through life with boundless exuberance is contagious.

YOU KNOW I’M GONNA MAKE A WHOLE ASS POST ABOUT THIS PARTICULAR SONG RIGHT?

So I’m not gonna go too hard om the shipper feels right now. Not too much, anyway.

Just let me get emotional about Jester being Fjord’s literal beacon of light in all this darkness, in him being pulled along with her happiness and shenanigans, loving her pranks and silliness… As much as Fjord got a sense of self amd belonging with Vandran and his crew, did he ever have a true friend that could lift his spirits like this before?

Every time I’m leavin’ on ya You don’t make it easy, no, no Wish I could be there for ya Give me a reason to go Every time I’m walkin’ out I can hear you tellin’ me to turn around Fightin’ for my trust and you won’t back down Even if we gotta risk it all right now, oh

I think this is so important, both in light of what we mentioned earlier and in Fjord’s current arc. Jester constantly pulling him back in when he goes too far, not giving up on him, making him wish he was better and that he could protect her too.

They look after each other.

I’m fine.

ALSO JUST LET ME SCREAM ABOUT TRAVIS ADDING A WHOLE SONG JUST FOR JESTER FOR A WHOLE MINUTE BECAUSE I’M FEELING SO BLESSED AND VALIDATED. SHE IS SO DAMN IMPORTANT TO HIM.

10.Unsteady (Elrich Lee Gravity Remix) by X Ambassadors

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. And looking around at the people that now surround him, Fjord feels like they are building an increasingly strong chain.

Listen, Fjord my boy is already so attached and dependent of his friends and feels so much stronger and steadier thanks to them after a lifetime of fear and rejection. I’m so emotional.

Mama, come here Approach, appear Daddy, I’m alone ‘Cause this house don’t feel like home If you love me, don’t let go If you love me, don’t let go Hold Hold on Hold on to me 'Cause I’m a little unsteady A little unsteady

DON’T YOU DARE LET GO OF HIM YOU GUYS HE NEEDS YOU SO MUCH.

11. Ocean (feat. Khalid) by Martin Garrix

Feeling cautiously optimistic about his future, he finds himself in awe of his adventuring crew. That’s a new emotion and outlook for him, and he feels truly bound and responsible for these crazy people.

THIS IS A LOVE SONG TO THE M9.

THAT’S IT.

HE LOVES THIS CREW SO MUCH. HE’S REALLY TRYING TO DO HIS BEST BY THEM.

I will physically fight anyone who dares doubt of this good boy again. He’s been alone his whole life. He finally found a family and he will do anything for them. They are the best thing that has ever happened to him.

If we’re caught in a wave, I will carry you over It don’t matter where you are, I’ll run to your front door When my head goes in different directions You know my heart’s never on the move And in the dark times, you don’t have to question If I’m a hundred with you

You could put an ocean between our love, love, love It won’t keep us apart You could build a wall, I would run it up, up, up Just to get to your heart If we’re caught in a wave Baby, we’ll make a way You could put an ocean between our love, love, love It won’t keep us apart

LISTEN. I’M JUST

EMOTIONAL

12.Warriors by Imagine Dragons

Half the shit Fjord has seen since joining up with The Mighty Nein would normally have sent him running. But ya best know, The Mighty Nein are no joke. These fighters are bound to him, and he to them —and no one is taking away this new world he has found.

LET HIM FEEL BRAVE.

LET HIM FEEL HOPEFUL.

LET HIM FEEL POWERFUL.

LET HIM FEEL LOVED.

LET HIM FIND STRENGTH IN HIS FRIENDS.

In youth you’d lay Awake at night and scheme Of all the things that you would change But it was just a dream!

Here we are, don’t turn away now, We are the warriors that built this town Here we are, don’t turn away now We are the warriors that built this town From dust.

This is so on point and I love how much Fjord enjoys being a part of this group of powerful warriors and how protective of this he is. This is his life and he will do anything it takes to live it and keep it by any mean necessary.

“and no one is taking away this new world he has found” is such an interesting perspective about how Fjord thinks and why he’s sometimes willing to go to even dark lengths to get what he or his friends want. This is a possessive and protective statement coming from a man who already had everything he held dear ripped away from him once, who had lost and suffered too much… He won’t let that happen again.

#fjord #fjorester #critical role #sofia's nonsense #travis willingham #listen to the drums; listen to them

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afanoftheglassscientists · 5 years

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The Glass Scientists Sunday Predictions

Sadly, there’s not much to predict outside of what I spoke of last week, so I’m not gonna repeat what might be revealed tomorrow. I can say one prediction - the reveal of the spirit (I’m dubbing it the Spirit of London at Night because that’s one of Hyde’s favorite phrases associated with him) is going to book-end the chapter.

If it does end the chapter that means there’s going to be a chapter cover the week after. If that happens next Sunday I’m going to do a Chapter Review instead of a Sunday Prediction, starting with the first chapter. I say “review” but I don’t mean a “this SUCKS here’s TEN reasons why” kind of review. I mean more of a “hmm I see so in THIS panel oh this is interesting hmm” kind of review. So any time there’s a chapter cover or a break I’ll do one of these reviews until I’m caught up. They are gonna be really long and rambly and filled with side-tangents, so I’m saving these for only when there’s a break. I do other stuff too, you know. Like work. And reading for a book club. And playing Rune Factory 4 for six hours on my day off not realizing my legs are slowly morphing into jelly.

Now I don’t want to leave this week’s prediction with a “We’re Closed!” sign on the front, so let’s play around with a question that’s relevant in every Jekyll and Hyde story:

Who’s Going to Find Out Jekyll’s Secret First?

Let’s do this character by character.

Lanyon

Lanyon feels like the most obvious candidate to find out first since that’s how it went in the original story, but the way he finds out and how he reacts might be different.

Ways to Find Out

Hyde reveals himself to Lanyon because he’s very cross about not being able to go to the mall and he knows Lanyon finding out will hurt Jekyll the most.

Hyde/Jekyll accidentally reveals their secret while Lanyon’s snooping, since he has snooped before and may snoop again.

Jekyll reveals himself because he finds out Lanyon is snooping and feels he needs to explain to Lanyon what’s going on BEFORE Lanyon’s hair turns white and he dies. Admittedly this one’s unlikely because Jekyll absolutely doesn’t want Lanyon of all people to find out first and I seriously doubt he’d take the initiative.

Ways to React

Lanyon is incredulous at the thought. “Hahaha. Good joke. Funny. Funny joke. No I don’t believe you. Hahaha. Laugh with me please.”

Lanyon is upset because he feels like he, Jekyll’s best friend and confidante, should have known Jekyll would something as ludicrous and dangerous as splitting his mind first! He could have covered for him! Jekyll didn’t trust Lanyon to keep a secret! Unbelievable!

Lanyon is upset and guilty because he realizes he might have been the cause for Jekyll to do this. That doesn’t feel great. He doesn’t feel great about this. He feels terrible. Half of Jekyll hates him. Oh dear.

Nope Nope Nope Nope NOPE! Taking a long walk that’ll last a whole chapter cannot compute GOODBYE!

Ways for Jekyll to React

Doomed

Rachel

Rachel has been friends with Jekyll for a long time, and she’s cared for Hyde since they met. So finding out that two of your best buds is actually just one bud that split their “evil” and “good” halves is going to be...interesting.

Ways to Find Out

Hyde tattletales on Jekyll tells Rachel upfront in order to make her an accomplice and bring her further on the Team Hyde side of the field.

Rachel finds out through seeing the transformation firsthand.

Jekyll entrusts Rachel with the secret in order to stop her from cooperating with Lanyon and having Lanyon find out his secret. Rachel’s not a good person to find out, but Lanyon is a waaaaay worse person to find out.

Ways to React

Confused and Concerned are the top two emotions

Angry at the fact that Jekyll could have just told her what was going on so she didn’t have to worry about her sweet cinnamon scone getting hurt.

Wait does that make Jekyll her sweet cinnamon scone too? She’s going to have to rearrange her relationship table.

Digs her heels in further and demands Jekyll lets Hyde free. LET. HIM. OUT! *starts banging pans together*

Does her best to keep their secret, but that doesn’t mean she fully accepts what Jekyll did. Finding out who Hyde really is will really mess with her vision of him being a baby chick going through a phase.

Ways for Jekyll to React

Gets down on his knees and begs Rachel to keep his secret. They’ve been friends for years. This hasn’t changed that right? Rachel likes Hyde, so maybe she’d be a bit more accepting of him than Lanyon would. Yeah. He can work with this.

He’s doomed.

Frankenstein (and Creature)

Frankenstein finding out Jekyll’s secret can’t possibly make Frankenstein’s view of Jekyll any worse, right? It can only go up from here right? RIGHT!?

Ways to Find Out

Jekyll finally snaps and shows Frankenstein his transformation after Frankenstein kept trash-talking him.

Hyde reveals the secret to gain cool points with her.

Frankenstein gets bored, escapes and finds the potion, his notes on the transformation or Jekyll in the midst of transforming.

Ways to React

Cool. Jekyll’s still a coward because he doesn’t share any of his findings that are actually interesting.

Frankenstein is impressed but still sticks with her view that you can’t split your “evil” and “good” side. Jekyll just split everything interesting about him into another version of himself, leaving himself to be a boring husk of a man. (while you hear her trash-talk Jekyll further you can hear Hyde blowing an air-horn in the background)

Frankenstein might think Jekyll could actually be a mad scientist instead of an impostor pretend scientist. He still shouldn’t bother with the exhibition, but there’s still a chance for him to follow Frankenstein’s way.

Creature does not care.

Ways for Jekyll to React

Almost satisfied that Frankenstein saw his work and reacted to it, except now he has to be extra careful to get Frankenstein to NOT spill the beans.

Dear lord what has he done!? Quick lock her up so she doesn’t say anything!

Jasper

In my mind Jasper would be most likely to discover Jekyll’s secret before the final stretch of the story, with Frankenstein on the rear. Lanyon and Rachel have very strong feelings on both Jekyll and Hyde, so finding out that the two are technically the same person is going to irrevocably change their opinions of both halves. Jasper on the other hand still has yet to meet with Hyde directly, so he doesn’t have any strong opinions on him. That doesn’t mean Jasper going to be like, “oh cool,” and be done with it though.

Ways to Find Out

So far Jasper is a person that Jekyll can just be relaxed around. He’s not stressed about Jasper like he is with Frankenstein and the other Lodgers who are currently on Team Frankenstein at the moment. So even while he lets slip his philosophy and how he really thinks to Jasper, he isn’t concerned about Jasper finding out because he doesn’t even think Jasper is on the list of people to worry about finding out. So there might be a chance that Jekyll reveals one too many clues and Jasper pieces it together.

Jasper’s magical creatures clue him in. I don’t know about you but my pets can recognize who feeds them. Jekyll helped to feed them once, so if Hyde comes around and they react to Hyde the same way they did to Jekyll that might give Jasper some clues. Bonus if some of the creatures can communicate with Jasper going, “hey there’s something weird out that Jekyll fellow maybe you outta snoop around k thanks”

Hyde reveals it to Jasper to mess with Jekyll, casting doubt on Jekyll’s good intentions.

Jasper goes into Jekyll’s office to ask him a question and he finds out what Jekyll has behind all those glass cabinets.

Jekyll entrusts Jasper with things that could lead to Jasper discovering his secret, because honestly Jekyll is stretched to find people who are firmly on Team Jekyll at the moment.

Ways to React

So Jekyll is a mad scientist! Cool. And he can transform in a way similar to Jasper’s transformation. Cool! He has, like, a looot of questions to ask. But he might be too shy to ask them.

Its a toss-up on whether he’d think of Hyde as a completely separate entity or as a part of Jekyll that just has a different appearance. Werewolf Jasper and Jasper Jasper look different, but they’re one and the same, so isn’t it that way for Jekyll? Again, lots of questions.

He decided to trust Jekyll, and discovering this secret may cast doubt on that decision. It depends on how’d Hyde react around Jasper. My guess is “not good.”

Ways for Jekyll to React

Jekyll tries to force the genie back into the bottle and convince Jasper that what he saw or heard wasn’t reaaaally of any import. Jasper has other concerns. He doesn’t need to worry about this little secret Jekyll has.

The “How to be a Gentlemen” lessons shift to “How to Keep a Secret” lessons. Even if Jasper goes, “oh its fine i’ll keep it a secret promise,” Jasper can’t keep secrets or at least act like he’s not keeping secrets I’m betting an extra five dollars on that.

Jekyll gives up on putting the genie back in the bottle and continues pushing Jasper to follow his philosophy and understand his reasoning for doing what he did. If he was a mustached villain this is where he’d monologue his nefarious plot.

Others

Sergeant Brokenshire - If he found out he’d die. Full stop. He finds out he’ll reveal it to the other policemen and will try arresting him. Unless its at the very end and everyone else finds out he’s absolutely going to be killed by Hyde.

Virginia Ito - They’re the assistant neoalchemist under Jekyll. So it might be interesting for Ito to discover what ingredients Jekyll’s been using and going “hmmmmmm?” If they find this to be a bit too sketchy they might warn Jasper along with the other Lodgers.

Phew. That took longer than I thought it would. I mean, of course it would take longer than I thought it would. It always does. Anyway, til next week! Maybe.

#tgs #the glass scientists #tgs Sunday predictions

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kelyon · 5 years

Note

I have a golden cuff verse question. I noticed on ao3 you already have the number of set chapters for the verse. So do you know what is going to happen already in each chapter or did you give yourself a length frame so you know it’s going to be 50 chapters but your not sure how each one will play out?

So you want me to talk waaaaay too much about my writing process? Okay!

Let me introduce you to my best friend, The Snowflake Method. This step-by-step writing guide is what got me from a concept (Dark Castle BDSM) to a story. All fics are different and anyone who has a method that works for them is welcome to it. But for me, for my first major fanfic, I knew I needed a novel with a distinct beginning, middle and end. The Snowflake Method helped me make an outline and give this story some bones and structure.

The outline I have now has 48 chapters. I put 50 on AO3 because a) it’s neater, and b) I wanted to give myself the opportunity to add chapters if I thought something needed to be fleshed out better. (I added two whole chapters to the first part of the fic, consolidated two chapters into one and then cut a second montage chapter altogether.)

I’ve actually already written an entire first draft of Golden Cuffs. My original plan was that I would post those chapters with just a little bit of polishing. But the longer this has gone on, the more I see the holes in my first draft (which is fine! That’s what first drafts are for!). And the bits that I’ve published have mutated into their own story so that it would be weird AF to try to graft on the original draft. (Among other differences, the Rumple you guys have read is actually a lot nicer than OG and this Belle is a bit more proactive.)

So I’ve had the story all planned out from the beginning. But, as with everything else, plans don’t always line up exactly with what happens.

Thank you so much for this awesome question!

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xxmaybellxx · 5 years

Text

Robot Dreams: Chapter 6 (Final)

WAAAAAY longer than the others, but I couldn’t find a good place to break this bit up.

Jimmy raised his hands, pumping them back and forth a few times. Much to his surprise, however, his missiles didn’t fire. “What?! My missiles aren’t firing!” The Sandfleas laughed again, slowly surrounding Jimmy. “You think we would’ve forgotten about your little finger missiles?” The one in charge pointed his thumb to an as-of-yet silent masked punk who had a conspicuously large fang. “I had Fang jam them with gum while we kidnapped your dumb friends!”

As if on cue, the fanged Sandflea blew a rather large pink bubble that exploded, splattering gum across the lower portion of his mask.

“You… You dastardly fiends!” Jimmy scowled, taking a step back. No missiles meant no lasers as well. He couldn’t even free his friend! Jimmy felt entirely useless, pizza cannon nearly slipping out of his hand. Sighing slowly, Jimmy looked down, Sandfleas cackling as it appeared to them they had defeated their prey. “Thhhhhhhat’s it, come quhhhhhhhhhietly, Robot!” Slowly, Jimmy raised his hands. He could hear his friends muffled protests from behind him. He went to drop his newly made invention, but then gasped, looking up at his hand. “Pizza cannon!”

The Sandfleas looked confused, their weapons lowering slightly. “… Pizza cannon?” “PIZZA CANNON!” As he yelled, Jimmy fired the pizza cannon, a freaky fresh pizza splatting across the leader’s face. “OWW, HOT!” His voice was muffled as he clawed at his face, falling over and dropping his knife as he scrambled backwards. “Eat Pizza, you masked punks!” Jimmy fired his cannon with wild abandon, splattering the Sandfleas with steaming hot cheesy goodness. Before long, they were all scrambling towards the door, flinging it open and fleeing into the night. Satisfied, Jimmy quickly turned to his friends, dropping to his knees to untie them. “My friends! Are you alright?” “Robot! You saved us!” Ricky’s face was practically glowing. “With PIZZA!” Crash’s addition made Jimmy chuckle, his heart fluttering with pride in spite of their dehumanizing nickname for him. “I’m so glad you’re safe! I… I was worried you didn’t want me any more…” Jimmy’s head drooped slightly as he worked at the ropes binding the Commander’s hands. Without his lasers, this was more difficult than he was used to. “Didn’t want you any more?! Who would drive the Battletram?! Who would fix the lights when the autopilot fails and we crash?! WHO WOULD GET ME COLD DRINKS?!” The Commander seemed increasingly frazzled as he considered what would happen without Jimmy.

Despite how Commander overtly saw Jimmy as a robot, he was still touched by how nervous he got at the thought of Jimmy not being around. “Commander… I love you guys too!” “Love?” Commander made a face. “Aren’t you a robot?” Crash, always stating the obvious. “Robots don’t love!” Bones scoffed, seeming amused. “But -I- DO!” Not yet finished freeing his friends, but too excited to keep it in any longer, Jimmy whipped out the slightly crumpled blueprint. “Look!” They all leaned in, narrowing their eyes. Crash tilted his head, trying to read it upside-down. “What… Exactly are we looking at, Robot?” The Commander sounded more confused than Crash looked. “I have a heart, Commander! Mother showed me this when those masked punks tricked me and sent me back home!” “Wooooah, it’s filled with apple Jelly too!” Crash licked his lips. “You can’t EAT it, Crash!” Jimmy looked briefly horrified, pulling his hands back and clutching the blueprint to his chest. “It means I can feel emotions! Like you guys! Mother said you need love to harvest apples, so I was built with an honest to goodness heart!” “Aww, Jimmy! That’s so cool!” Crash looked excited now that he (probably?) understood. “Wow, I feel kind of bad for always calling you Robot now!” Ricky briefly seemed distressed, but the Commander soon cut him off, grumbling. “Well, he IS a robot…”

Jimmy smiled, realizing that it might take a little longer for his friends to truly understand him. But, well… At least this was a start. “Come on, guys. Let’s go home.” Other Chapters: https://xxmaybellxx.tumblr.com/post/186410300402/robot-dreams-chapter-1 https://xxmaybellxx.tumblr.com/post/186410619182/robot-dreams-chapter-2 https://xxmaybellxx.tumblr.com/post/186410946572/robot-dreams-chapter-3 https://xxmaybellxx.tumblr.com/post/186411415207/robot-dreams-chapter-4 https://xxmaybellxx.tumblr.com/post/186411660347/robot-dreams-chapter-5

#the aquabats #Jimmy The Robot #Aqabats #Fanfic #Happy ending #the sandfleas #sandfleas #<3

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uglymanchronicles · 5 years

Text

Ugly Man Chronicles Reignition Book 1 Chapter 3: No Gain

The Ugly Man’s crusade gets off to a bumpy start with a close call and some unpleasant memories.

It began with a man. A significant percentage of stories do. Almost half! This man wasn’t doing much, for someone at the beginning of a story. In fact, he was just sitting on a bench, doing nothing. He was a bit unusual looking, but no more so than anyone else—just distinct enough that his lack of distinctiveness didn’t make him stand out. He was on the shorter side, a bit heavyset, maybe in his late forties. The term ‘swarthy’ had probably been used to describe him more than once. He wore baggy cargo shorts, a sun-faded Hawaiian shirt, a wide-brimmed hat, and large aviator sunglasses. He flicked a toothpick back and forth between his lips, and a gold tooth flashed in his mouth when he smiled. He looked like somebody who had some interesting stories. Associates probably referred to him as a ‘character’.

This man wouldn’t even be of note in this story but for his reaction to an event that he couldn’t have witnessed. He was sitting in front of a cosmetics store without any large windows. He couldn’t see inside, it was busy and noisy in the street, and the shop’s door was being fastidiously kept closed to keep the air conditioning in. So when a boy in the store wandered away from his mother and pulled a shelf over on himself, why did the man start to smile? When the child started to wail as bystanders struggled to free him, why did the man’s lips part in a grin? And why did the child’s screams get more and more frantic and pained even after he was freed, while the man outside chuckled darkly to himself?

Regardless of the answers to these questions, whatever was happening preoccupied the man enough that he didn’t notice another man exit the store and stride up next to him. The man on the bench didn’t look up until the other man cleared his throat.

“What?” he snapped, irritably. “Oh.” The man standing over him was large and broad, his scarred face partially obscured by a hood and large dark sunglasses. The twin barrels of a sawed-off shotgun poked almost casually out of his jacket, leveled at the sitting man’s head.

“Let’s take a walk.”

Once deep in the alley and around a corner, Evan shoved the man against the wall, left forearm pressed to his collarbone and shotgun pushing into his gut.

“What were you doing to that kid?” Evan growled, hoping he sounded suitably intimidating. The man just gave him a gold-toothed grin.

“I got no idea whatcher talkin’ about.”

Evan pushed the gun in further. “Don’t bullshit me,” he snarled. “I saw it.”

“Saw what, pal?”

“You were making that kid hurt more than he should have, and you were, I don’t know, feeding off it. I could see the… miasma bleeding off him through the wall, leading right to you!”

The man shrugged. “What're you talking about?” he chuckled, dismissively. “That shelf looked really heavy! It's no wonder he was screamin' his head off!”

“It was aluminum. I pulled it off him with one hand and--"

Evan's brain caught up with his ears. He paused for a moment, then pulled the gun from the man's gut and held it under his chin.

“I didn't say anything about a shelf,” he said, hoping his voice was low and menacing enough, “You couldn't have seen it happen. You couldn't have known.”

The man's face went blank for a moment, then split into a sheepish grin. “Whoops. Guess I overplayed my hand, huh?”

Evan's figure twitched on the trigger. "So you were what, feeding off his pain? What are you, a... sorcerer or something?"

Despite the gun in his face, the man laughed and clapped slowly. "Not bad, not bad! You're half right, kid. I amplified that little boy's pain so it'd be a bit more filling. As for what I am, well..."

Evan spasmed, bending forward slightly. He tried to fire the shotgun, but the man had somehow jammed his fat finger into the trigger guard behind the triggers. He looked down at the source of the strange pain he was beginning to feel.

The man's right arm was no longer an arm. From the bicep down it had swollen and warped and twisted into a nightmarish mass of pulsating exposed muscle and spears of grayish bone, and several of those spears were sticking into Evan's stomach. His blood was already running down the bone.

"Y-you're... some kind of monster..." Evan stammered, feeling blood and bile rise in his throat as the simultaneous sensation of heat and cold began to resonate from his gut.

The man chuckled, his voice now something of a watery gurgle accompanied by a screeching echo of itself. "Kid, saying I'm some kinda monster is like saying you're some kinda animal," he said, effortlessly flicking the shotgun out of Evan's limp hand. "Technically correct, but it really doesn't come close to telling the whole story."

Evan let out a hoarse scream as the man lifted him off the ground with impossible ease. Maybe if he made enough noise, somebody would come...

"Don't bother screamin', now," the man said, holding up his still-normal left hand. A gaudy golden ring, set with a thumbnail-sized ruby, glinted on his ring finger. "Silence charm. Any noise around in a twenty-foot bubble around us stays there. I mean, don't hold back on my account, though!" He finished the sentence with a laugh like a drain clearing.

"Fuck... you!" Gritting his teeth against the agony of his skewered insides, Evan swung his arm back and twisted as best he could, slamming his fist into the man's cheek as hard as he could manage. He didn't twist or recoil on impact, but he did let out a surprised-sounding grunt.

"Hell, I actually felt that," the man said, rubbing his cheek with his remaining hand. "Not bad. You could actually be mistaken for a threat in bad light! Guess I might as well change."

The air around the man seemed to writhe, as if it was trying to get away from him. As Evan struggled, the man's form collapsed in on itself, as though it was disappearing down an invisible tunnel. At the same time, something else was rushing in to fill the space. Evan felt himself being lifted higher as the monster's legs unfolded underneath its body, a dense, rotund form of exposed, writhing sinew, spikes of jagged bone, and steaming, tar-like ichor. A face that resembled a skinned ape's head with four-inch fangs regarded Evan through eyes that were nothing more than globes of sickly yellow light in hollow sockets.

"That's more like it," it said, rolling its head on its shoulders. It didn't seem to have a neck; instead, the exposed muscle across its shoulders simply ferried the skull from side to side. "You know, I don`t get to come to this realm too often, but this time it was waaaaay easier than normal. And I even managed to catch me a dumb-ass amateur monster hunter! You're lucky, kid! Most of you slapdicks never actually get to find a real one!" It paused for a moment, looking down at its arm as if it'd forgotten it had speared Evan moments earlier.

"Well, maybe 'lucky' ain't the right word," it admitted, scratching the side of its head with a hideously curved claw. It leaned in towards Evan's face, the lights contracting as if it was narrowing its eyes. "Come to think of it, it don't look like 'lucky' applies to you very often. You look like you've been through the wringer and back, pal!"

“What can I say,” Evan hissed through gritted teeth, “I've lived a charmed life.”

“Must be,” the creature agreed with a gargling chuckle. “Actually, it looks like this might be my lucky day, instead! The fact that you're still conscious, let alone alive, means I get to use one of my favorite tricks. Oh, happy day!”

“Glad to… hrrnnghh… be of service.”

The creature placed its free hand over the top of Evan's head. “Now how this is gonna work is: I'm gonna run you back through every pain you've ever felt in your life. Every paper cut, every stubbed toe, every… whatever the hell did that to your face… everything. Back-to-back at high speed for me to sample. I call it a ‘pain flight'. You think that's too melodramatic?”

Evan glared at it from under its palm. The creature shrugged.

“Maybe ask before impaling next time, huh? Oh yeah—if you don't pass out before I get all the way back to the pain of bein' born, I'm pretty sure you'll go insane. Either way, you know, you're fucked, which I guess you probably already knew. Anyway, here we go!”

The pain of the impalement hit him again, even though he was still feeling it. The pains bounced off each other, creating a compound agony so profound that Evan vomited from the shock of it. He thought he was seeing double from the pain at first, but… it was like there was an impression of the monster laid over itself, as if replaying the last few moments.

Pain shot up his right arm, a gripping, tightening pain. He saw the flash of the lightning gun.

He felt his knuckles hitting bone and being hit back. He felt the agony of his pallet seal itself, right after he felt himself pull Carmichael's knife out of his face. It was worse than when it went in.

But with each sensation, he was back in that forest for a split section, tangling with the hitman.

He felt his head hit the edge of the counter, saw the ceiling of the RV. Felt the bouncers’ boots, smelled the hot asphalt and cigarette smoke. Saw the face of the striking woman—large, strong nose, intense brown eyes, titillatingly plush lips split in a sneer as the bottle broke on his head. Saw the bar bathroom as he stumbled painfully around and puked in the pisser. That one came with the smell, too, unfortunately.

Then things got strange. Impressions he didn't remember. General aches. Flashes of aches, delirium, mental confusion. Then something he recognized, but didn't remember.

The barn. The chair. The camera. The…

Oh shit thisisgonnabebad

The pain wasn't as bad as the realization of what the melting sensation inside his head meant. He was deleting himself.

BUT THE PAIN REMEMBERS!

The pain was still insane, though. The drill bit was worse, though. He could hear the whine and the sound of his skull crunching. He knew he was screaming in the real world, but he was desperately trying to glean details from the… vision. Impression. Whatever.

But it was gone. Now he was in another state of confusion. His face was constantly burning. For most of it he seemed to be in the passenger's seat of the RV.

Who's driving who's driving SHOW ME WHO'S FUCKING DRIVING

He could hear impressions of words over the demon's cackling and whooping and his own screaming, but all he could pick up was a hint of a drawl. If only he could concentrate…

Burn of alcohol. Sanitized the wound.

An alarming amount of what he'd come to recognize as the pain of his body rapidly healing itself. Kept me alive.

And then his head exploded. The whole left side of his face felt like it was hit with solid fire. The bone didn't break as much as vaporize. It was transcendent agony.

But he saw him.

His own right arm was shoving someone aside. I took the hit he couldn't?

Tall. Broad. Shaggy blond hair. Blue eyes peeking out from uneven bangs. A look of genuine concern, fear for a friend's safety as he fell backwards, weathered leather cowboy hat falling from his head from the shockwave of whatever was turning Evan's skull into a crater.

Evan's heart, already pounding fit to burst, skipped a beat. He didn't know who this man was, but something in him lurched. He must have been so important to me, he thought. Why did I make myself forget?

That vision flicked out of perception into another confusing miasma. He felt things bite him, slash him. He felt what was probably an arrow shoot through his cheek and split his nose. He saw glimpses of horrible things as he struggled to pry them off him.

And he saw the cowboy again.

In between painful blows he saw him, standing beside him, fists raised. He heard him laugh alongside him as the punched, stomped, and shot their way through mobs of barely-human beings, and a few bars full of actual humans. A broken bottle in the thigh. A knife in the ribs.

A square jaw, a wide nose, a kind smile.

Then the cowboy split his ribcage open with an ax. There was something wrong with him then, though…

His muscles and joints tore and reknotted as he forced himself to get stronger as fast as possible…

The cowboy shouted a warning as something behind him tore his back open…

A huge hair-covered beast clawed at his legs as he squeezed his thighs around its neck, strangling it…

And then it was back to things he could remember. Slamming a hand in the car door. Sitting on his nuts. Biting a fork.

“Go… back,” he croaked, throat raw from screaming.

“Huh?” the monster seemed genuinely surprised. “I… what?”

“Gotta… see… who that was…” Evan gurgled, his left hand grasping at the creature's skull-face.

“That ain’t how this works, dipshit!” the monster grunted, leaning away from Evan’s grasping hand. “I can’t just rewind it! And if you’ve forgotten, you’re being tortured to death here!”

The impact of the bullets on the body armor when he ‘died’. More punches, given and received. More incidental, everyday pains, lost in the accelerating storm of agony.

“No, please… not this part… don’t make me go through this part again!” He gasped, ashamed at how pitiful his voice sounded.

The monster laughed. “Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about! You all break in the end! Man, I wish I could see what you’re seein’ but I bet it’s gonna taste great!”

Evan bit back tears.

The hard, wet floor. The strong, rough hands. The mocking laughter. The feeling of tearing, pressure, violation…

He realized he was sobbing. The monster was watching him almost thoughtfully, then made a noise that, in a human, might have been the clicking of a tongue in realization.

“That’s what that taste is! Somebody made you their bitch, didn’t they?” It laughed its gurgling laugh again. “That’s how it always is with you tough guys, always making up for some kinda sexual inadequacy or some trauma like that. Downright Freudian, it is. Fuckin’ sad.”

Evan didn’t even have the strength to glare at it. He just hung there, sobbing and choking on his own vomit, blood, and phlegm as more pains flashed by him, almost unheeded.

The kid at the boxing championship with the plated gloves. Backyard wrestling. The thing his sister and her friends had done with the broom handle. His sister breaking his jaw on his sixteenth birthday.

It was definitely speeding up now, and something in Evan stirred him out of his stupor.

You can’t let it end here.

But what could he do? He had no weapons, no real powers, his strength meant nothing against this thing…

Limping along through the woods on a broken leg. Getting shoved down a hill on a hike and breaking the leg. Aching, ambient pain from the surgery that removed the cancer they’d found in lower intestine.

Something about that last one spurred a recollection. Something not quite a memory, not in this state, but…

The enormous weight of the bull’s hoof crushing his sternum. The horn tearing his side apart as he threw the little boy out of harm’s way.

The little boy with shaggy blond hair and deep blue eyes. The little boy whose cowboy hat, so many sizes too big for his little head, was falling away from Evan with a look of fear and worry in his eyes.

Evan felt his heart lurch like an engine backfiring into life. He felt his soul ignite.

“I KNOW WHO THAT WAS! I KNOW WHO HE IS!” he screamed, his eyes alight with a manic intensity.

“Holy sh—” The monster actually jumped slightly. “Will you get back to sobbin’ about getting’ ass-fucked? I’m almost done here, and so are you.”

Evan grabbed at its face with both hands. “Can’t die here. Won’t let you. I know now. I know. I gotta find him…”

“Fuck off!” The monster tightened its grip over Evan’s head, making his skull creak. It was an odd sound, coming from inside his own head.

There’s gotta be something I can do. I can’t lose here. I did this because I had to. Somebody had to. You have to beat him.

As the impressions became skinned knees and scraped elbows, Evan knew he was running out of time.

One last thing…

Those cords, those cables he’d seen when he’d looked through his fingers. Maybe if…

An arm that wasn’t his arm, yet still at the same time could not be anything else, slipped through the thing’s skull, finding a slimy, writhing morass inside that felt like living sickness. It clenched a handful and yanked.

Evan hit the ground with a thud, his breath hissing between his teeth. The hole in his stomach was already closing. And the creature was a man again, standing there in shredded clothes, staring aghast at his own suddenly all-too-human hands.

“Wh-what… what did… how… what are you?!” he stammered.

Evan lined up three responses in his head:

The truth: “I don’t know.”

The intimidating: “All you need to know is I’m the man who’s about to kick your ass.”

The exhilarating: “I’M A FUCKING SUPERHERO!”

What came out was a mumbled “All you need to don’t fucking know is I’m about the superhero.”

The man blinked and stared at him, mouth slightly agape. “Did you have a fucking stroke?”

Evan kicked him hard in the knee, bracing against the wall to push himself upright as the man howled.

Evan spat out a mouthful of something disgusting and raised his fists. “Shut up and die.”

His first punch caught the man right above the eye as he attempted to straighten up. It hurt his hand, but it hurt the man more. It felt good.

Less than a second after the man’s head hit the alley floor, Evan’s hand was tangled in what was left of his thinning hair and yanking him upright again. His knee crushed the man’s nose with hardly any resistance. Dazed, the man started to topple backwards, but Evan whipped his leg around without his foot touching the ground and kicked him in the back of the head, sending him sprawling forward again onto his hands and knees.

“You deserve worse for what you made me go through, you freak,” Evan growled, stepping over the man’s prone, retching form. “But I’m the mother. Fucking. Good. Guy.” He leaned down and wrapped his arms around the man’s substantial waist, clasped his thighs around his head, and then jerked back upright, swinging the man’s considerable girth into the air with relative ease. “Man, being strong fucking rules!”

“What are you doing?! Stop! You can’t do this to me! It’s impossible!”

Evan bounced up and down a couple times, then shouted in an exaggerated Texas accent, “Bah Gawd, King, I think he’s gonna do it!”

“NOOOOOO!”

Evan jumped and tucked his knees under him. The short-lived pain of his knees crashing into the concrete was nothing compared to the crack of the man’s skull hitting first.

For a moment, Evan sat and watched the body. It stopped twitching after a few seconds, which he was grateful for. The noises it was making were too… human. But eventually it gave one final shudder and lay still. And then it began to dissolve.

It was as if the corpse was made of barely-held-together sand, being silently sucked up by an invisible vacuum cleaner. Evan watched, awestruck, then raised his left hand to his face and peered through his fingers.

The body’s purple-black cords were fraying at the ends, their composite threads bleeding off into nothingness. The whole knotted mess was quickly dissolving, but Evan saw something different within the tangled morass. He couldn’t place why, but a chunk of the stuff looked distinct.

Without blinking, he pulled his left hand away from his eye. He’d found that as long as he held his eye open, the ‘aura vision’, or whatever it was, persisted. Carefully, he reached out and stuck his left hand into the mass.

It was like he’d felt before, when he’d somehow reached into the thing’s head—slimy, cold, and filthy. But it also felt pitiful and fleeting. Dying. He reached deeper.

Visualize. It’s not your arm, it’s… the idea of your arm.

His not-fist closed on something sticky and warm. He pulled back, but before he could even get a look at the thing, it slipped out of his grasp like sand and flowed down his arm, the sensation stopping at his homemade tattoo. For a moment, BE YOUR OWN HERO lit up bright blue and tingled slightly. Evan couldn’t help but feel he’d added something to himself.

All that was left of the man were scraps of his clothes and his gaudy ruby ring. Evan picked up the ring, eventually managed to fit it over his pinky, then yanked it off in disgust. How tacky. Still…

One down.

#Ugly Man Chronicles: Reignition #Ugly Man Chronicles #my writing #chapters #Urban Fantasy #tw: rape mention

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ngame989 · 5 years

Note

I don't mean to sound demanding, but when do you think you'll continue the updated Forever series?

You’re not being demanding here at all, I’ve been a spectacular failure at communication and meeting my own goals for it. So this update is really overdue.

Basically what it comes down to for me is that I’m in a constant process of being frustrated with and revising my ideas on a much faster timescale than I can actually write them. If this was an original work of fiction, this would feel like a natural part of the writing process, but it would happen as I’m writing, on an appropriate timescale. For SVTFOE fanfiction, the work is an extension of my thoughts and feelings on the show, and I think and talk and discuss and hypothesize a LOT about it and take it almost too seriously at times. Way more than even this blog would indicate. I kid you not that it has happened that I’ve written entire pages of draft for a story in one evening, and then in the next 24 hours I have hours worth of some discussion about season 4 that tweaks my outlook just enough to totally break the premise of the chapter I started writing. This happened for Ch 2 of Forever, actually - I had it about half done before an exam-induced break, and when I got back to it I realized I no longer agreed with the entire premise of the scenes I had set up, and got writer’s block trying to figure out where to go from there.

I’ve tried adjusting my mentality and/or getting into a more productive workflow again and again, but the end result is always the same: I’m waaaaay too obsessed with this damn show to not overthink my specific ideas into oblivion again and again. I can’t just “turn my brain off” and pump out a story any longer than a handful of paragraphs for fun. This problem even exists as I’m writing my disconnected oneshots, but is exponentially magnified for longer works since I’m not only struggling with discontent for the scenes I’ve written but also how they can integrate into a bigger whole, which is ALSO constantly changing in my head. Talking about the show, even if the contents themselves are stressful sometimes, still has a meditative effect letting out restless energy and thoughts, like venting steam. With writing fanfic, it feels like the opposite: I have to not only come up with specific ideas for things to write, but they also have to mesh with all the pent-up, pressurized ideas I have about the show bouncing around my mind - like trying to pump a possibly volatile gas into an already pressurized cylinder.

Also, another tendency of mine that’s completely counterintuitive to fanfic writing is that new content actively drives me away from creating my own as opposed to fueling it. The thought of new show content flips a switch in my brain that basically says “why should I give a shit about my own previous ideas when I could try to analyze canon?” NYCC clip came out around the same time as I was in the process of writing/redoing Chapter 2, and that didn’t help at all.

(And note that none of this is even factoring in the general exhaustion as a result of school that makes me not want to spend my free time pursuing even more mentally draining hobbies, my generally poor writing workflow and habits to overthink grammar and phrasing and flow even on a first draft until everything grinds to a halt as I agonize over a verb choice for 5 minutes, etc)

I do genuinely want to keep exploring more of Star and Marco’s relationship, trust me, there is NO shortage of scenes and ideas playing constantly in my mind’s eye. But unless I can find a way to totally decompress and disconnect the writing process from my view of the show itself, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to construct a meaningful narrative that I don’t completely pick apart within a week of drafting it up. I can’t help but hold myself to the same standards as the show because I want to do the characters and their interactions justice, and my self-perceived inability to meet it weighs on me. I think the best I’ll ever be able to manage is just writing some random scene idea without much context, because at least then I can get it out there before my own mind turns on it.

So maybe this isn’t an actual announcement cancelling Forever, but it might be an announcement cancelling it as a standard serially updated narrative. There are still a handful of ideas I have for later specific scenes that are near and dear to my heart, and I may just write those directly rather than try and force myself to write an entire narrative building up to them. But my focus has and always will be on the show’s canon, and we’re approaching the time where that will matter more than ever, so I can’t really promise that fic writing will be a pressing concern of mine in the coming months.

#answered #fanfic #starcoiskillingmebutidontcare

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geochic03 · 6 years

Text

Amber Sunrise: Chapter 6

Previous Chapter Next Chapter

Fandom: Final Fantasy XV

Pairing: Gladio x Female OC, Prompto x Female OC

Rating: T (For now)

Words: 7,799

Read on AO3

A/N: So my intentions with this chapter are to have Gladio and Peri get to know each other while Peri get's more comfortable with the big guy. As always your comments are always appreciated. I will be going back to edit earlier chapters for continuity purposes.

“Oh man I can’t believe they said yes!” Prompto cheered as he and Gladio walked through the busy streets of Lestallum’s residential district.

Gladio shook his head with an amused smile “What would make you think they wouldn’t have said yes?”

“Dude…you’ve seen Sera…she’s gorgeous…waaaaay out of me league!” Prompto exclaimed.

“Did you ever think that maybe, just maybe, a hot girl might be into you. I’ll admit, you’ve put some muscle on these last seven years…and the goatee gives you some character. Just because it isn’t Cindy’s bag doesn’t mean other girls won’t be into you.” Gladio laughed.

Prompto scratched the back of his head nervously “Well…I don’t think it was just me she wasn’t into. Come to find out…people of the male persuasion aren’t really her uh, bag….she’s actually been with someone for awhile…”

Gladio’s eyes widened “Shit…never would have guessed that. Good for her I guess…anyone we know?”

“Yeah, we know her pretty well…you know Jeanne right?” Prompto said nonchalantly.

“The power plant girl handling the power grid? Wow…never would have guessed that either. How do you know so much gossip and my sister, the queen of gossip in Lucis didn’t even know?” Gladio questioned.

“Oh Iris knew…pretty much everyone knows…where have you been big guy?” Prompto ribbed him.

“Where do you think I’ve been, kicking the shit out of daemons and keeping the lights on in this place.” Gladio said sarcastically.

“And wooing the locals…” Prompto smirked.

Gladio chuckled and shook his head “I haven’t exactly wooed her yet…you have a better shot at getting action tonight than I do.”

Prompto smirked “You really like her don’t you?”

Gladio looked away trying to hide the blush creeping up his face.

“You do…wow, now I need to meet the girl that has tamed the beast.” Prompto joked.

“I told you, no wooing yet. We’re just friends, I’m doing this double date more for you than me….I’m taking things slow, let her come to me yah know?” Gladio explained.

“Which I appreciate.” Prompto said placing his hand on his shoulder.

Soon Gladio stopped in front of a small cafe not far from the edge of the residential district. He turned to Prompto and turned his thumb out to the entrance.

“Ready?” Gladio asked him as they stopped on the stoop.

Prompto gulped nervously “As I’ll ever be…”

Gladio laughed as he clapped shoulder “Come on lover boy, let’s get you a girlfriend…”

***********************************************************

Peri sighed as she nervously bit her lip in the booth she was currently sharing with her sister. She looked across the table to see Sera’s blonde hair perfectly curled as she adjusted the straps on her yellow sun dress.

As Sera looked up she gave her sister an inquisitive look “What? Too much cleavage?”

Peri rolled her eyes as she leaned back into her seat “Too much everything…”

Sera laughed as she shook her head “Hey, I offered to do your hair and make up…you’re the one who decided to wear cargo pants and a tank top…an old tank top might I add.”

“You’re acting like this is a date.” Peri said dryly.

“Because it is a date. You have to make a good first impression. And before you shoot me down in your strange sense of denial, it is a date…a double date, with two guys rumored to be connected with the crown. He asked you to dinner Peri…after all the let down’s you’ve given him it’s a miracle he is still pursuing you.” Sera said knowingly.

Peri rolled her eyes “I don’t care what you say…this isn’t a date.”

Suddenly Peri looked up to see Gladio and Prompto enter the cafe, scanning the crowd before Gladio locked eyes with her and gave her a knowing smirk.

Peri sank back into the booth, blushing profusely as the boys approached them. Sera gave a small laugh before turning her attention to Gladio and Prompto, who had finally arrived.

“Well hello there boys, great to see you both again!” Sera said giving Gladio a wink and Prompto an unexpected friendly hug.

Prompto gulped nervously as he tentatively hugged her back “Ye…yeah…great to see you again too Sera.”

Sera pulled away before giving him a playful smirk “You know, for a minuet there I thought you didn’t enjoy our conversation together at the bar a few weeks ago. You went radio silent on me hun.”

Prompto gave a nervous laugh as he scratched the back of his head “Yeah, sorry about that…just got caught up in some hunter things…”

“Well it’s alright, just don’t do it again ok?” Sera said giving him a wink as she sat back down, with Prompto sliding next to her.

Gladio turned his attention back to Peri giving her a cheeky smile “This seat taken?”

Peri rolled her eyes “Would you just sit down.”

Gladio without hesitation slide into the booth next to her, smiling a little to himself as he watched the blush creep up Peri’s cheeks as his hand accidentally brushed up against hers.

“Wow Sera, you looked beautiful…” Prompto said in awe as he looked her over.

“Not used to seeing you out of your work clothes.” Gladio added.

Sera smirked “Well you know, someone had to bring some sunshine on this gloomy night. Is it just me or does it seem like it’s getting even darker out than before? I didn’t think it could get any darker than it already was but…”

“Well, according to Iggy as the Scourge continues more plasma particles are released into the air and making things kind of foggy and…” Prompto began.

“Wow you sure know a lot about this stuff…” Sera said with a smile.

“Uh…well…not that much…I just overheard him talking about it on our last mission.” Prompto said nervously.

As the two continued talking Gladio turned to Peri giving her a warm smile “Well those two are hitting it off…you look amazing too…by the way.”

Peri bit her lip nervously “Thanks…I uh…guess you don’t look too bad either.”

“Oh this? Bah this isn’t anything special, just my casual look.” Gladio said jokingly.

Peri nodded silently as Prompto and Sera continued to converse in there own little world.

“So uh…how did the mission go?” Peri said as she fidgeted with her napkin.

Gladio shrugged “Good I guess. We eliminated the daemon nest and got back early, so a win all around.”

“Yeah but boy was it a doosey. For a minuet there I didn’t think we would make it back, but you really pulled through for us big guy in the end…” Prompto interjected.

“Wow that dangerous huh? Well it’s a good thing ya’ll made it back in one piece!” Sera said in shock.

“Well…it’ll take more than a daemon nest to take one of us out…well, at least Gladio. He’s like a tank!” Prompto said talking them up.

Gladio shrugged “Gotta put all my training to good use somehow…”

At that moment the waitress came by and took their order. Peri looked on as she watched the others order, distracted by Prompto’s comment about the mission. She barely knew Gladio, why did she feel this twinge of concern that he was facing such danger.

“And for you hun?” the waitress said tapping her pad.

Peri shook herself from her thoughts before making a last second decision on her order “Umm..I’ll have the meat skewers with the house ale…”

Gladio smirked “Copying me huh?”

“Wait what….” Peri said confused as the waitress took her menu from her.

Sera rolled her eyes in disappointment “Were you even paying attention?”

“Of course! I just…spaced out for a second. I worked overtime all week give me a break!” Peri said in her defense.

“Oh that’s right, big guy said you worked at the power plant. Cool, thanks for keeping the lights on!” Prompto said with a smile.

“Uh…sure…” Peri responded shyly.

Sera winked at Prompto flirtatiously as she turned her attention back to the group “So…is what I heard true? Ya’ll work for the crown?”

Prompto nearly spit his drink out at he mention of the crown. Gladio laughed amusingly at his friend as Peri looked on perplexed.

“No need to freak out Prompto…it’s not like we’re secret agents or something.” Gladio laughed.

Sera smirked “So it is true…whayda know…”

Peri narrowed her eyes, thinking back to when she saw Gladio before he left on his last mission. He was dressed in all black, with a skull motif on her shirt. Suddenly she made the connection.

“You guys….are Crownsguard…” Peri said starring back at Gladio.

The two nodded in confirmation.

“Yup, well, Gladio’s been in it a lot longer than me. I joined up so I could accompany my best friend to his wedding and…shit I said too much didn’t I Gladio?” Prompto said in a panic.

“Nah, we can trust them. They never gave me a reason not to…” Gladio said turning to Peri with a smile.

Peri bit her lip nervously as her sister continued to pry.

“Wedding? Wait, you’re not talking about the wedding are you? The wedding of Prince Noctis and Lady Lunafreya?!?” Sera said in an excited whisper.

Prompto clicked his fingers towards her with a wink “That’s the one….”

Sera sat back processing the information “Damn…so ya’ll are in deep with them huh? All this time I never guessed it.”

“I’m nothing special…I would have just been a lowly rank if we ever made it back to the Crown City. Gladio here has the real pedigree. He’s the Prince’s Shield!” Prompto exclaimed.

Sera turned to Prompto, giving him a warm smile “I am sure you wouldn’t be lowly…don’t sell yourself short!”

“She’s right you know. I’ve seen you’re work with a gun. He’s good with his fingers.” Gladio said with a wink.

Prompto blushed at his comment, knowing what he was insinuating. Sera turned to him and gave him a flirty smile “Oh yeah?”

“Did you really just say that?” Peri said with a groan.

Gladio gave a small laugh “Well it’s true. He’s good with his gun which means he’s good with his fingers.”

“Alright…no more of this please…our foods about to arrive and I would like to eat without regurgitation.” Peri said attempting to stop their flirting.

Sera shook her head “Aww Peri your no fun!”

At that moment their food arrived, causing Sera and Prompto to go off in the own little world again discussing Prompto’s love of photography, as Prompto took out his camera and snapped a shot of his dinner.

As Gladio took a bite of his meat skewer he turned to Peri and gave her a smile “Good right?”

Peri nodded as she took another bit in her skewer. Feeling an awkward silence between the two of them, Peri decided to speak up “So the Prince’s Shield huh?”

“Yup….I guess you could say it’s kind of like a bodyguard….although, my duties lie elsewhere now a days…” Gladio said trailing off.

Seeing it was a sore subject Peri decided to change topics “So the mission was pretty dangerous huh?”

“I guess, but we went with a group of seasoned Glaives who could handle it so it was no sweat. Did you ever think of joining the Glaive at one point? I mean, being a former hunter and all…” Gladio asked curiously.

Peri was silent for a moment as she thought about his question. She couldn’t lie to herself, she had as soon as she heard about the Glaives in Lestallum, but then Ollie died….and any sort of fighting became too painful for her to endure.

“I…had…” Peri said reluctantly.

Gladio raised his eyebrow curiously “Oh? What happened?”

“It’s a long story…but I decided the power plant could use my help more than the Glaives, and my dad got sick so…” Peri said as she took another bite into her food.

Gladio frowned “Oh…that sucks, I’m sorry…”

“It’s ok…he’s ok…umm sorta…he has his days….but you know he’s getting old and…” Peri rambled.

Gladio gave her a warm smile “Don’t worry, I got you. Illness sucks. My mom died when I was ten after catching this weird virus that infiltrated the wall. She wasn’t sick for long but…it was hard.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Peri said somberly.

Gladio shrugged “It was a long time ago…I’ve had time to process it so to speak.”

Peri nodded their group continued to converse. She didn’t know why she was so shocked to hear of Gladio’s own personal tragedy. Everyone’s got their own story of heartache in this world, but the way he carries himself you would never know.

“You know, if you ever need a model I would be happy to fill in for you…” Sera said giving Prompto a smile.

“Uh…yeah…yeah that would be great!” Prompto said stuttering.

Soon the waitress came by an cleared their table, coming back leaving the check. As Peri leaned forward to grab it Gladio snatched it from the tablet.

Peri frowned as she looked up at him “What are you doing…”

Gladio smirked “What do you think I’m doing? Prompto you owe me 400 Gil.”

“Oh, uh right….” Prompto said as he reached for his wallet and thew some Gil down.

Sera looked over at him with a smile “Well ain’t you just the gentleman.”

Prompto blushed at her comment as he shrugged “It’s nothing…thanks for the company.”

Peri scowled as she turned her attention to Gladio “You’re not paying for me.”

Gladio continued to waive her off “Too late, she already took the check.”

“Seriously…here please take the GIl.” Peri said shoving the bills at him.

Gladio pushed it back to her “I don’t want it…it’s my treat for you agreeing to come out tonight.”

“Gladio…we agreed this isn’t a….” Peri began but Gladio cut her off.

“I never said it was. Listen, if it makes you feel better you can pay another time ok?” Gladio said finally relenting.

Peri huffed “Ok, fine…”

At that moment the two noticed both Sera and Prompto missing from the table.

“Umm when did they…” Peri said looking around for her sister.

Gladio shrugged “Dunno…must have been while you kept insisting on giving me Gil for a dinner I insisted was my treat.”

Peri rolled her eyes and sigh as she motioned for Gladio to get up from their booth “Come on, maybe they are outside….”

***********************************************************

Meanwhile in an alleyway somewhere in Lestallum….

“Uh…Sera…are you sure it’s cool we just leave them alone like that?” Prompto asked worriedly as Sera pulled him into one of Lestallum’s back alley.

Sera waved him off “Absolutely. My sister may not be too good at showing it but she’s really into your friend.”

Prompto raised his eyebrow towards her “I dunno, she really seemed like she wanted to punch Gladio in the balls a few times during dinner.”

Sera stopped them, turning towards Prompto and backing them up until Prompto’s back hit the wall of an adjoining building. Nervously Prompto gulped as he starred back into her steel gray eyes.

“Trust me…she likes him. My sister doesn’t notice guys too often, and your friend has been on her mind ever since she met him at the power plant, even if it may be because she says she hates him.” Sera said placing her hands lightly on Prompto’s chest.

Prompto gave a nervous laugh “Oh, alrighty then…who am I to say you don’t know you’re own sister.”

“Exactly. Besides…maybe I wanted some alone time with the blonde man who has been occupying my thoughts for the last few weeks.” Sera said with a devilish smirk.

Prompto blinked confusingly before catching on to her and giving her a smirk in return “Oh…OH yeah, I got yah.”

With that Sera leaned in and pressed her lips to Prompto’s with vigor as they embraced each other in the darkened alley way.

***********************************************************

“Did they seriously just leave us?” Peri said scanning the area outside the restaurant for her sister and Prompto.

“Looks like it.” Gladio responded placing his hands in his pockets.

Peri gritted her teeth “I’m going to kill her when she get’s home…”

“At this rate it might not be till morning.” Gladio smirked.

“Really don’t wanna think about that…” Peri groaned.

There was silence between the two for a moment as they stood outside the restaurant.

“So…what now?” Gladio asked looking down at his boots.

“Well, dinners over so…I’ll just be making my way home now and…” Peri responded as she turned to leave. Before she could get too far Gladio rushed up to her grabbing her arm.

“Hey…I don’t even get a goodbye? Prompto and I bought you guys dinner, at least let me walk you home.” He said with a hopeful look.

Peri looked back at him with a slight frown. He was right, it was rude of her to storm off after he had extended himself like that. She gave a sigh as she turned to him “Ok, fine. As long as you don’t become a stalker.”

“Can’t make any promises…” Gladio chuckled.

“Gladio…” Peri growled.

“Ok, ok sorry just a joke. Besides, stalking isn’t really my style.” Gladio said with his hands up in defense.

Peri folded her arms and shook her head as they began to walk towards her apartment “I would beg to differ…”

“How would you know anyways? It’s not like you know that much about me.” Gladio retorted.

“I know plenty about you, believe me.” Peri fired back.

Gladio smirked “Oh yeah…name two things you know about me.”

Peri turned to him giving him a confident smile “You’re the prince’s bodyguard.”

“Shield…but how about something you didn’t just learn over dinner.” Gladio said with a small laugh.

Peri gave a defeated sigh before going back to thinking up another piece of information. After a few moments of deliberation Peri turned to him with another smile “You’re quite the ladies man.”

Gladio laughed “Or something you heard through rumors that seem to spread like wildfire around this place. But if it get’s you to smile like that again, I’m willing to let it slide.”

Peri quickly turned away from him blushing from his comment towards her. Gladio smiled back at her knowing he was the cause of her sudden change in demeanor. He had to admit, she was pretty cute when she blushed.

The two walked in silence for another block before Gladio snapped his fingers as if he had suddenly come to a realization.

“How about this, obviously we don’t know much about each other so why don’t we make a game of it?” Gladio said moving in front of her to face her as they walked.

“A game?” Peri said skeptically.

Gladio nodded “Yeah like a twenty questions sort of thing…or how ever many we can fit into the time it takes to get to your place. If either one of us doesn’t want to answer a question we can pass. No pressure…”

Peri hesitated for a moment, stopping in her tracks as she mulled over the idea before responding “I can ask any question?”

“Yep.” Gladio nodded.

“And I won’t get shit for not answering one of yours?” she asked.

“One hundred percent no shit from me.” Gladio said with a warm smile.

“Ok, fine.” Peri said in agreement.

Gladio fist pumped in victory “Alright! So, because I am such a gentleman I’ll let you go first.”

Peri thought for a moment before deciding on going easy for her first question “Favorite food?”

“Cup Noodles.” Gladio answered without hesitation.

Peri’s eyes widened at his response “Cup Noodles? Of any food in all of Eos you pick instant noodles?”

“Hey it’s not just instant noodles. It’s an experience. If you have the right ingredients, trust me, it’s something you never forget.” Gladio said in defense.

“Ok, ok…I get it.” Peri said as they continued to walk.

“Maybe if they ever start up production again I’ll show you…” Gladio said nonchalantly.

Peri looked over at him confused “What? I…”

“How about you? What’s your favorite?” Gladio said retorting her first question.

“Well…there used to be this cafe right at the edge of the city. They had these bread buns that were to die for…” Peri explained.

“Ah yeah I know the ones you’re talking about. They were pretty good, not as good as Cup Noodles though…” Gladio smirked.

“Whatever.” Peri said rolling her eyes.

Gladio laughed as he gave her a playful nudge “Ok, your turn Peri girl.”

Peri snapped her head turning to him “What…did you just…”

“It’s your turn to ask me something…” Gladio said as he watched her stare at him.

“What do you…uh, do in your spare time when you’re not on missions?” Peri asked hesitantly.

“Mainly recharge, help out with things around the city, catch up on my reading…” Gladio rattled off.

“You read?” Peri said surprised.

Gladio chuckled “Yup, nothing better than kicking back with a beer and a book. Why, you surprised or somethin’?”

“Well…you kind of don’t take me for the reading type…” Peri said look away.

“What kind of type do you take me for?” Gladio suavely.

Peri sighed and rolled her eyes “Forget it…”

Gladio chuckled “I get it…I know I look like the meat head muscle type. If you give me a chance I can show you I’m more than just that…”

Peri blushed unwillingly at his comment as they continued to walk.

“So what about you? Any hidden talents I should know about? You know…besides being badass with a sword.” Gladio asked her.

“Don’t really have time for hobbies.” Peri said bluntly.

“Come on…there has to be something…” Gladio said egging her on.

Peri sighed before finally answering him “Before the darkness…I used to garden.”

“Ah so you have a green thumb huh?” Gladio responded wiggling his thumb in the air.

Peri shrugged “I guess…it was a good way to unwind after a long hunt. We used to have a roof top garden but…well you know.”

Gladio nodded “Right…”

They continued walking, albeit in silence. Gladio looked at her and gave her a playful nudge “Unless we’re at your place it’s your turn for a question.”

Peri shook herself out of her own thoughts and gave him a quick nod. After a moment she turned him, finally thinking of her next question “Any other Family I don’t know about?”

“Just a younger sister, Iris.” Gladio said matter of factly.

Peri thought for a moment before something clicked in her head “She’s not…Iris the daemon slayer is she?”

Gladio chuckled “Yup, the one and only. I guess you can say fighting runs in the family.”

Peri slowly nodded as she absentmindedly asked her next question “What about your dad? I mean I know about your mom but….”

Gladio frowned as he turned away from her for a moment. He gave a sad sigh as he ran his fingers through his long dark brown locks “My dad….he was killed during the treaty signing.”

Peri bit her lip nervously “Oh…I’m…I’m sorry. That…really sucks loosing both parents…”

“It’s cool…that’s life though right?” Gladio said as he looked off into the distance.

“My mom died when Sera was two…my dad…got injured in a hunting mishap and had to retire early. He opened up the tavern in town as a second career but…as the years went on his lingering injuries got worse and Sera ended up taking over most of the regular duties. I help out when I can but…” Peri rambled out to a stunned Gladio.

“That sucks…I’m sorry…” Gladio said with a frown.

“It’s fine…that’s life right?” Peri said firing back his words from earlier.

Gladio nodded with a small smile “Yeah…”

There was a moment of silence between the two before Peri spoke up again “Aren;t you going to ask me something?”

“Nah…you kind of answered a question before…even if the answer was unsolicited. I’ll let you go again.” Gladio said with a smirk.

Peri hummed to herself as she tapper her chin. She had to admit, she was kind of enjoying this.

“If you’re such a lady killer why are you still single?” Peri asked curiously. If the rumors were true it didn’t make sense that he hadn’t hooked up with someone long term by now.

Gladio smirked “ I wouldn’t exactly call myself a lady killer perse…more socially open. And I never said I was single.”

Peri rolled her eyes at him “Really Gladio? You just took my sister and I out on a double date and you’re not single?”

“So you agree this was a date then?” Gladio said with a wide smile.

“Gladio…” Peri groaned at him.

“Ok, ok…sorry couldn’t resist.” he laughed as they continued walking.

Peri frowned “You still didn’t answer my question…”

“Well, if you haven’t noticed my life style isn’t exactly good for long term relationships. I’m gone a lot…sometimes for months at a time. Most women want more commitment from there guy than what I can give them and end it within the first few months.” Gladio explained.

“Maybe you just haven’t met the right one…” Peri commented as they rounded the corner to her apartment building.

Gladio looked down at her and gave her a warm smile “Maybe…”

Peri looked up to see they reached her family’s flat “Well, this is me…uh, thanks for the dinner and what not…”

“Hey wait…aren’t you gonna explain to me why you’re still single?” Gladio said reaching out to her.

Peri bit her lip nervously “I…it’s complicated…”

Gladio folded his arms and gave her a smirk “I got some time…”

At that moment the door to Peri’s apartment swung open to reveal her father standing in the passage way. Peri looked over in horror as she watched her father rub the sleep out of his eyes and look between the two.

“Back already? Where’s Sera?” Frank said with a yawn.

Peri gave a heavy sigh as she responded “She…took a detour…she should be home soon.”

“Ah…well you know yer sister…maybe it’ll be in the morning.” Frank said shaking his head.

Gladio chuckled “See…I’m not the only one.”

Frank cranked his neck up, meeting Gladio’s gaze “And who is this spry young man?”

“Gladiolus sir. I was just making sure your daughter got home alright. Uh, your other daughter is with my friend Prompto…he’s pretty harmless so you don’t have anything to worry about…” Gladio said with a laugh.

Frank extended out his hand “Ahh, so you’re the famous Gladio I’ve overheard my daughters talking about…names Frank…I’m Peri and Sera’s father…”

Gladio took the man’s hand and gave it a firm shake “Pleasures all mine sir.”

Peri looked back between Gladio and her father. It was almost nauseating how polite he was being with him.

“The kettle’s still on…why don’t you come on in for a few minuets?” Frank asked him with a warm smile.

Gladio turned to Peri, silently seeking permission before accepting.

Peri gave a defeated sigh before gesturing to the door “Come on in…”

The group walked in as Frank lead them into the kitchen “So…you got a last name son?”

“Amicitia.” Gladio said without thinking.

Frank stopped in his tracks as he heard Gladio’s answer. Peri looked over to see her father in deep thought.

“Amicitia huh? Are you apart of the same Amicitia family from the Crown City?” Frank asked looking away from them.

“Yes sir. The one and only…” Gladio responded without hesitation.

Peri felt now was a good time to interject between the two “He’s actually the Prince’s shield papa.”

“Well, my duties are suspended until he returns…when he returns…” Gladio emphasized.

“Prince’s shield huh? Then you must be related to Clarus then.” Frank responded reflectively.

Gladio nodded “Yes…he was my father…”

Frank frowned “Was huh? Shit…must mean he didn’t make it out of the city then…can’t say I’m surprised. Figured by now he would have popped up her in Lestallum otherwise…and from what I remember he was attached at the hip to the king.”

“Did…you know my father?” Gladio questioned intrigued.

Frank nodded “Yep…Clarus and I go way back to our training days. He whooped my ass a few times here and there…but what else would you expect from the future captain of the Crownsguard?”

Gladio rubbed his chin “Dad never mentioned he knew anyone outside the wall…”

“Probably because we knew each other inside it. After I left the Crown City we lost touch…I don’t even think he knew where I was at after that…” Frank explained.

“Why did you leave?” Gladio asked curiously.

Frank smiled “It’s a long story son…maybe I’ll tell it to you another time.”

Gladio nodded as Peri handed them both mugs of hot tea. Frank gladly took his mug and raised it to them “I’ll be on to bed now…don’t keep my daughter up too late son.”

“Don’t worry, just going to finish my tea and be on my way. Thank you for allowing me into your home.” Gladio said with a nod.

Peri looked back at him giving him a skeptical look, she couldn’t believe he was buttering up her father.

Frank chuckled before leaving “You got manners, Clarus dun taught you right. Hope to see you around son.”

One her father was gone from the kitchen Peri gritted her teeth in annoyance “What the hell was that?!?”

“What do you mean? You heard the man, I was being polite.” Gladio smirked.

“Oh no, no, no, no…you’re not slithering your way into my life by buttering up my pops.” Peri said waiving her finger in front of him.

Gladio gently grabbed her waggling finger, stopping her motion and gave her a smirk “Oh I was well into your life way before the buttering…”

Peri yanked her hand away and frowned, knowing he was right “Well…whatever…I just agreed to one dinner, that was it…this is the last time…”

“Do you really want this to be the last time?” Gladio questioned her as he sipped his tea.

Peri gave a heavy sigh as she looked down into her mug “I…listen, my life was going fine until you barged your way into it. Now it’s like no matter what I do I can’t get rid of you!”

Gladio put his mug down before he walked over to her, lifting her chin. Peri’s gray eyes widened as she started back into his bright amber ones.

“You want to know what I think? I think you talk a lot of talk but in reality…you really don’t feel that way. I don’t know the reason why yet, but if you really wanted to be rid of me you could have easily denied any of my suggestions, ended conversations, not have accepted my free drink at your family bar. And the truth being,I would have backed off. You know that, I know that…I think tonight proved that. So why fight it?” Gladio said with a confident smirk.

Peri froze for a moment before moving away from him, crossing her arms and shaking her head “I hate you.”

“No you don’t.” Gladio laughed as he went back to drinking his tea.

Peri rolled her eyes as she picked up her mug and gulped down her drink, hiding the blush in her cheeks that was slowly creeping up. He was right, and she hated that fact.

At that moment the two looked up to see Sera stumble through the front door of the flat. Nonchalantly she took off her heels and left them by the door, as she looked up Peri couldn’t help but notice her sisters kiss swollen lips and the light love bit on her collar bone.

Sera looked up at them and smirked “Damn, and here I thought I was going to be the one to bring a guy home tonight, bravo sister.”

Peri groaned as she rolled her eyes “He’s not staying, he’s leaving as soon as he is done with his drink.”

Sera winked “Right…”

“Seems like you and Prompto had a pretty good time tonight.” Gladio smirked.

“You could say that…well, good night sister, Gladio…don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” Sera cheered as she walked out of the room.

Peri sighed “She is a menace…”

“Nah, she’s just having fun teasing you…” Gladio laughed.

As they both finished their tea Peri couldn’t help but look up at Gladio’s scars, even way back when she first saw him at HQ they intrigued her.

“Is there something on my face?” he asked as he took her mug from her and placed it in the sink.

“Umm…kind of?” Peri said not thinking of her answer.

Gladio mockingly clutched his heart “Ouch…my wounded pride. How will I ever look at myself in the mirror again.”

“Vain much?” Peri said raising her eyebrow skeptical.

Gladio laughed and waived her off “Nah I’m just joking with yah. I’ve had these bad boys for years now. Kind of grew to like em, something about upping my danger factor with the ladies.”

“How did you get them?” Peri blurted out.

Gladio pointed up to his left eye “This bad boy, protecting the prince from some jerk with a broken beer bottle at a bar in Insomnia.”

“What about the other one?” Peri asked quietly.

Gladio smirked “Would you believe me if I told you Gilgamesh?”

“Gilgamesh? Umm now I think you are full of shit…” she said skeptically.

“Ask the Marshall…he’ll vouch. I got a matching one on across my chest too. Home boy doesn’t play.” Gladio laughed.

“I’ll pass.” Peri said waiving him off.

Peri walked him to the door as Gladio finally calmed his laughter “Well, thanks for the tea…and you know letting me in and letting me meet your old man.”

“Never intended you to meet my old man, or invite you in for tea.” Peri rebutted.

“Right…we’ll kind of funny our dads knew each other…don’t you think?” Gladio said nonchalantly.

“I guess…who would have thought…” Peri said unenthused.

“Was your dad in the Crownsguard or…” Gladio began before Peir cut him off.

“My dad doesn’t talk much about his time in the Crown City so I wouldn’t know.” she said quickly.

“Oh…ok, I get it…touchy subject.” Gladio said looking away.

Peri sighed “Not for me…for him. My father left the Crown City thirty years ago and never looked back….became a hunter, met my mother and settled here in Lestallum. I don’t ask him about it because any time I brought it up he would change the subject.”

Gladio nodded silently in thought “Kind of ironic both of our dads knew each other.”

Peri rolled her eyes “Don’t think too much into it. It’s just a coincidence.”

“I dunno…I think it’s more like fate…” Gladio smirked.

“Annnnd now it’s time for you to go. Goodnight Gladio.” Peri said cutting him off as she turned to go back into the house.

Before she got too far Gladio grabbed her by the arm to stop her “Hey wait…I had a good time tonight. Maybe we can do it again sometime?”

Peri turned around to face him, a hopeful look on his face as he looked down at her.

“It…wasn’t bad. I’ll admit it.” Peri said said to him with a small smile.

Gladio smiled back before he pulled her into a big bear hug. Peri blushed at the sudden contact as he released her. With one final wave Gladio turned to leave. Before he got to far she called out to him “I’ll umm…text you?”

Gladio turned to face her again and smiled as he responded “Yeah…sounds good.”

With that Gladio turned to continue his walk back to his place. He couldn’t help but smile knowing that he made progress tonight. She was opening up, and seemed to be trusting him more.

“Hey big guy!” he heard a voice call out.

Gladio turned to see Prompto running up to him.

“So, looks like you had a good time tonight.” Gladio smirked as he noticed the fresh love bites on Prompto’s neck.

Prompto gave a happy sigh “Amazing…Sera is amazing…she’s smart, funny, driven. She get’s our whole deal working on Cor’s missions. I think I’m in love dude.”

Gladio chuckled “Slow it down there buddy, you only went on one date.”

“But you don’t get it. I’ve never clicked with anyone like that before! Well…not since I met Noct. It just, feels right you know?” Prompto explained.

“Yeah, I got yah.” Gladio said acknowledging him.

“I mean, I figured you would get it…with you pursuing Sera’s sister and all. She must mean something to you if you haven’t moved on yet. I have to admit, she doesn’t really seem like your type.” Prompto admitted.

“Yeah…I know…but there’s just something with her…I can’t figure it out, but hopefully now that she’s more open with me I will.” Gladio commented as they continued their way back to their apartments.

Prompto turned to him with a smirk “So how did the rest of your date go after we left you? I mean you’re coming back from her house soooo…”

“Well I met her father…” Gladio smirked.

“Whoa….what kind of a guy is he? Anything I should be worried about?” Prompto said nervously.

Gladio shook his head “Nah…you’ll be fine. Trust me he will love you.”

Prompto let out a sigh of relief “Thank the astrals…because I was really nervous for a moment when she told me he used to be a hunter.”

Soon they approached Gladio and Iris’s flat and Gladio said goodbye to Prompto with a waive. As he made his way up the stairs he couldn’t help but smile to himself as he thought about his night. The more he got to know about her the more he felt this inexplicable pull to her. He had never felt that way about a girl before and if he was being honest with himself it freaked him out, but on the other hand he was excited to see where this relationship with Peri would bring him.

One thing he knew for sure though…he was going to see Peri Lorenzi again, and the only thing he could hope for was that she was feeling the same pull to him as he was to her.

#ffxv #final fantasy xv #ffxv fanfiction #orginal work #gladiolus amicitia #prompto argentum #gladiolus x oc #prompto x oc #Amber Sunrise #sassy frank lorenzi

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